Blood Red Moon
by ArtisticRainey
Summary: Life, unsurprisingly, throws the Fearsome Foursome another curve ball when the discovery of a sickle moon pendant sends them hurtling away from family and friends into a sordid alternative New York. How will they make it home this time? Complete.
1. Chapter 1

**Blood Red Moon**

_By ArtisticRainey_

TMNT © Viacom

No profit has been made from this fanwork.

"There, that should do it."

Donatello set down his screwdriver and dusted off his hands. He surveyed his handiwork with a critical eye, but walked away satisfied. He went into living area, set his hands on his brother's shell and leaned over the back of the couch.

"It's ready."

Leonardo's face broke into a huge grin, gently wrinkling the skin around his dark eyes.

"Great! Let me see it before I get Mei."

He attempted to stand, but Donatello's strong arms kept him sitting down.

"No, no. I'll get Mei now, and then you'll both see it together."

"But Don –"

"_Together_," Donatello said firmly. "You're supposed to be a couple, remember? And I don't think Mei will appreciate you seeing the surprise before she does, do you?"

"I guess not." Leo nodded. "Okay, you go get Mei and I'll stay here."

Don raised one eyeridge and drummed his fingers on the lip of Leonardo's shell.

"I think I'll take out some insurance on that," he said, and then raised his head upwards. "Mikey!"

Michelangelo's grinning face appeared from one of the upper catwalks of the old pumping station-turned new lair.

"Yeah, bro?"

"Make sure Leo doesn't move from this spot until I get back," Donatello said.

Mike gave his signature giggle as he jumped down to the ground floor, spinning wildly in the air.

"Sure thing, Don!"

He leapt onto Leonardo's lap and gave him his most convincing innocent expression.

"Papa Leo, will you read me a story?" he asked.

Don chuckled as he leapt upwards and over onto the lower catwalk leading to Leonardo and Mei Pei Chi's quarters.

"No, I won't read you a story," he heard Leo say. "Now get off me, you're too heavy."

"But you need to practice for the new arrivals, and aren't I cute enough to rehearse with?"

"_No_."

Don paused briefly and his expression darkened. _Don't count your turtles before they've hatched, Michelangelo_.

He shook himself of the grim feelings before knocking gently on Mei's door. It seemed like only yesterday that Leonardo of Third Earth and Mei Pei Chi of Sixth Earth had fought each other for the title of Battle Nexus Champion. The two had become immediately inseparable, so much so that Mei had returned with them, losing out on the title but gaining a soul mate. Now, however, she was in no condition to fight.

The female turtle opened the door slowly and smiled gently at her visitor. Pregnancy, for want of a better word for carrying mutant turtle eggs, seemed to suit her. The breast-like tissue at the top of her carapace had swollen slightly, as had her abdomen. It was nothing like the huge mass of a pregnant human woman's baby bump, for the hard scutes were not as malleable as skin. However, it was clear that Mei was going to lay several eggs, and soon.

"Good morning, Donatello," she said in her light Chinese accent.

"More like good afternoon," Donatello said with a smile.

Mei's face scrunched in a frown and she folded her arms.

"I asked Leonardo not to let me sleep in," she said.

She went to force her way past, but Donatello stopped her with a gentle touch.

"It's my fault, Mei," he said. "Leo was going to wake you, but I asked him not to. You need your rest."

He looked at her apologetically, and she opened her mouth, but snapped it shut abruptly.

"I suppose you are right, as always, Donatello," she said. She wagged one finger at him. "You are far too wise for your twenty-two years."

Don jerked a thumb over one shoulder and grinned.

"With this family, someone has to be!" They chuckled and Don sighed. "Anyway, the reason I came up here is because I have a surprise for you."

Mei's eyes widened and she clapped her hands together.

"Is it finished?"

"Yes. And I've made sure Leo hasn't seen it first." There was a crash and both turtles tried to peer down over the catwalk. "At least, I hope I have."

They descended into the main lair to see Michelangelo curled around Leo's legs, holding them in a death-grip to prevent his brother from walking any further.

"No, Leo, Don said –"

"Leonardo!"

Mike and Leo stilled immediately and swung their heads around as Mei's voice boomed throughout the cavernous chamber.

"You're so busted," Mike said, and then, after seeing the frowns on both Mei and Don's faces, he added, "Make that _double_ busted."

Leo shook Michelangelo from his legs and clasped his hands behind his back.

"I, uh, just wanted to make sure it was okay for you first?" he said.

His eyes appealed to Don for help, but Don shot back a look that simply said 'I told you so'.

"You don't trust your brother?" Mei asked. "Donatello would not have called us if it were not perfect."

Don gulped involuntarily, but pushed the feelings aside. It _was_ perfect. He stepped forward to stop the impending argument.

"Come on, you two," he said."

"Ooh, ooh! Can I come?" Mike asked, putting the innocent expression back on his face.

"You'll have to ask the happy couple," Don said, gesturing to Leo and Mei.

Mike gave them his best puppy-dog eyes and the tension in the room melted.

"Of course you can," Mei said, reaching out for Leonardo's hand. He took hers gently.

"Yeah!" Mike said, punching the air.

The little group made their way to the room just off the main lounge area that had now been designated 'the Greenhouse'. Raphael had come up with the name when he had been helping Donatello install some of the new components for the 'surprise'. Don had nodded in agreement with the name. It was fitting. He reached out for the door handle, but turned back.

"Hands over your eyes," he said.

Leonardo did so reluctantly, relenting only at Mei's glare. Mikey did so immediately and giggled.

"This is so cool," he said.

Don rolled his eyes, and gently turned the handle to usher the couple inside. Mike followed. Mei elicited a little gasp at the sudden increase in temperature. Don grinned.

"Okay," he said. "You can look now."

Leo and Mei stood with matching open mouths as they gazed around the Greenhouse. They grey brick walls had been plastered over and painted with a gentle yellow. The floor was sanded down smoothly, and in one corner there was a large tray full of fine brown soil. Dominating the room, however, were the two large glass boxes with intricate controls that had given the room its name.

"Oh, my, Donatello," Mei whispered. "It's…wonderful!"

"You've really outdone yourself," Leo said, stepping forward to shake Don's hand. "Thank you."

The happy couple walked further into the room at Don's bidding as he shook off the compliments.

"April chose the colour for the walls. That side of things isn't exactly my forte," he said. As Mei inspected the tub of soil in the corner, he continued. "I'm not sure how much of your turtle instincts will kick in once it's time to lay the eggs, so I've provided a safe place in case you feel the need to dig up the soil and lay them that way." He blushed lightly. "The soil is sterile; April ordered in some special stuff to her local garden centre." He saw Leo looking from one incubator to the other, his brows drawn slightly. "I've given you two in case Mei lays more than one egg," he said. "I figured it would be nice to have both a niece and a nephew in that case, so you can adjust the temperatures in the incubators to suit either."

Mei surveyed the room from top to bottom, before slowly walking to Don and looking straight into his eyes. Don swallowed again.

"Oh Don!" she cried, throwing her arms around him. "It's absolutely perfect! I don't know how to thank you!"

Don smiled, relieved at the praise, and gave the expectant mother a gentle squeeze.

"Your approval is more than enough," he said simply.

Leonardo planted a hand on the lip of Don's shell.

"Thanks again, bro," he said. "This sure took a lot of work."

"Nah," Don waving away the hours of scavenging, researching, surveying, planning and building. "It was nothing."


	2. Chapter 2

The view from the office was stunning. The huge MedTechCorp skyscraper dominated the Manhattan skyline. Windows stretched from floor to ceiling on the corner walls, and a lone figure stood silhouetted against the bright lights of the city. She folded her hands behind her back as she surveyed the hustle and bustle of New York City life, watching the strings of slow moving lights as the gridlocked traffic sparked off anger and frustration. Michio Haruka, CEO of MedTechCorp, turned away from the window and walked to her desk. As she sat down she fingered the silver sickle moon pendant that hung around her fine neck. Her long leather boots creaked as she crossed her legs. At the same time a spark of pain shot through her abdomen.

"It is to remind you of me."

The mass inside her writhed briefly as the words reverberated in her mind.

"How could I ever forget you, or the task you have set me?" Haruka said out loud, though there was no need.

"Or the help I am giving you?"

"Indeed."

Haruka turned the pendant around on its chain, twisting and untwisting it carefully.

"Come down to the laboratory. I have something that you may find of use in your endeavours," the voice said.

Haruka let go of the pendant and stood, wincing as the scar on her side burned.

"It is to remind you of me."

"Nice work on the Greenhouse, Brainiac."

Raphael launched himself over the back of the couch and landed heavily on the worn-out cushions. He threw his helmet onto the coffee table, kicked off his riding boots and placed his feet on his brother's lap.

"Gross, Raph," Don said, wrinkling his beak at the smell. "But thank you. You did your part, too."

"Nah. It's easy puttin' together a glass box. Makin' all that climate control shit is the difficult bit."

"Hey, Donnie!"

The lithe green form of Mona Lisa leapt across the room. She landed gracefully on the back of the couch and grinned at Donatello. He smiled back, and she launched herself over to one of the battered armchairs. She set her helmet down beside Raph's and kicked out her feet.

"Hi, Mona," Donatello said. "Did you guys have a good ride?"

Mona and Raph looked at each other. Donatello closed his eyes, recognising his fatal error in speech.

"Well –"

Recognising the twin grins of mischief, Don held up a hand.

"I didn't mean it like that!" he said.

"Like what?" Raph asked. "You're the one with the filthy mind, bro. We didn't say anything."

"Must be all the talk of babies in the air," Mona said, curling her long tail up around her.

"Well, don't you be gettin' any ideas," Raph said, giving her a significant look. "Bein' an uncle is enough for me."

Mona simply stuck out her tongue in response.

"Anyway," Don said, pushing Raph's feet from his lap, "I expect Mei will lay her eggs in a few days at the earliest. It may be several weeks. It's not easy to estimate since she's a mutant."

"Hmm. April and I should start planning her shower," Mona said. "I wonder what she'll have?"

"She'll simply have eggs," Don said, feeling his invisible professor hat slide onto his head. "The gender of a fertilized egg is dependent on the heat it's kept at. Cooler for males, warmer for females."

Mona grinned and winked at Don.

"That's because girls are hotter than boys," she said.

"Something like that," Don said, smiling.

Mona shifted around in her chair and threw her legs over its back.

"What do you think our kids would look like, Raph?" she asked.

"What did I tell you about gettin' ideas?" Raph said. "I dunno. Green, I guess. Prolly all deformed an' shit."

"_What_?" Mona said, righting herself.

Donatello could practically see Raph's brain backpedalling.

"Well, I mean… Imma mutant turtle and you're a mutant, uh…"

"I think we settled on 'salamander-thing'," Mona said.

"Yeah. So, like, our genes are all messed up, so what would it be like if we mashed 'em together? An' like Donnie said before, we prolly can't even have kids."

"Yeah…" Mona's expression darkened momentarily, but then she threw a throw pillow at Raphael. "Anyway, pull your panties out of your crack, Raph. It's not like I'm asking you for babies, is it? Like you, I think being an auntie will be enough. Especially if it's an auntie of three!"

Raphael grunted and placed his heels on the tabletop. Mona's expression turned thoughtful and she glanced at Don.

"What about you?" she asked. "Have you ever thought about having kids?"

"Who, me?" Don barked out a laugh, but felt his insides twist. "Well, first of all there's a lack of a significant other in my life. Second of all, as you're well aware I'm married to my work. I simply wouldn't have the time. And speaking of time," he said, wishing he wore a watch to emphasise his point, "I've spent too much of it outside the lab for one day. I'll see you guys for dinner."

"Don't work too hard, Donnie!" Mona called after him.

Don retreated to his lab and shut the door tightly. He fell down into his chair and swung around to the many computer screens. Of course he had thought about having kids. It wasn't easy not to when the subject had been thrust in his face for months now. Well, 'thrust in his face' wasn't really fair. He had volunteered to fix up a safe place for the eggs. Who else could? On top of that as well was educating the couple on what was still to come. Considering he'd never even 'done the deed' that had caused the eggs in the first place, it made him feel like a complete fraud. It was simply a matter of research and guesswork. How could he possibly know for certain what was around the corner for the couple and their mutant babies? But when Mei looked up at him and was so trusting, and when Leo clapped him on the shoulder and had so much confidence in him, Don had no choice to do anything other than blunder on.

He reached for the computer mouse and opened up the file he had compiled on gestation periods. He flipped through the information again. It really was just guesswork. Different turtle species had vastly different gestation periods. By his powers of deduction and blind instinct Don had pinned it down to at least two months, but who really knew how long it would go on for? Of course, that was dependent on whether the eggs hatched at all. There really was no guarantee.

Don shook himself from his dark thoughts and opened up the schematics for the pumping station's security systems. There were always improvements to be made. His heart, however, was not in it. It was still stuck on the thoughts that once again he would retreat to his bed that night to be completely and utterly alone.

The locking mechanism whirred in its setting as Michio Haruka placed her hand against the sensor panel. She slipped inside quickly and the door closed behind her immediately. Her footsteps clanked a fast rhythm on the metal flooring as she descended into the bowels of the MedTechCorp headquarters. This particular laboratory was so secret that only a select few employees knew of its existence. They also knew that if they betrayed their employer, the deaths they would endure would be unimaginable. The symbiont in Haruka's side began to pulse and became pleasantly warm as she graced the last few flights of stairs to the bottom of the lab.

Everything changed. The walls were no longer a cold and metallic grey, but rather pinkish-purple and vibrating with life. Tendrils of flesh seemed to meld with the metal, and veins of lights pulsed through them in time with the creature in her abdomen. Haruka saw her stomach begin to glow beneath her black tunic.

"What is it that you want to show me?" she asked.

She walked to the middle of the chamber and fixed her eyes on the creature within it. It was a huge, globule of a being that writhed against the walls, made of the same tissue as them and seeming to merge in and out of them. It had two bright, black, protruding eyes that were fixed on Haruka, and it had several huge, silver tubes flexing between its head – if you could call it a head – and the walls. It opened its wide mouth, a slash of darkness in the pink skin, but no sound came out. As always, the voice spoke from within Haruka's mind.

"I have perfected the dimensional transporter, dear Haruka. After a test, we can begin to send your detested mutants out of this dimension as you wish. You will be the hero that you have always wanted to be."

Haruka crossed her arms, the pendant around her neck glinting in the dim light.

"And how will I know that you have really perfected it?" she asked.

Immediately a flash of intense pain wracked her thin body. She doubled over and fell to the ground, screaming.

"Because, unlike you, dear Haruka, I do not lie. Were it not for your lies, I would not be able to do this."

The little symbiont inside her began to squirm, thrusting itself against one internal organ and then another. Hauka's agonised howls echoed in the voluminous chamber.

"You lied to me too many times, which is why I placed a part of myself inside you, as you know very well. Now dry your tears, Haruka dear, and give me your pendant. I will make it disappear before your very eyes."

"No!"

Haruka grasped the pendant at her neck but let go as more electric pain sizzled through her, sending sparks down to her toes and right up into her addled brain.

"Why do you want to keep it, dear Haruka? Is it to remind yourself of the horrors you have inflicted upon others? This city? Your own father?"

"No, I –"

"Oh, dear Haruka. I know all about you. Now give me that necklace. When I return it to you, you will most certainly believe me."

The pain was suddenly gone, only the memory of it fresh in her mind. With shaking hands Haruka undid the latch of the chain and set the pendant down in front of the creature. Immediately the pink flesh consumed it and it appeared across the room on a bioplatform surrounded by screens and control panels.

"Watch," the alien commanded.

Before her eyes the moon pendant began to dematerialise, as if it were fluxing in and out of existence. With a blinding flash it fully disappeared. Haruka stared, wide eyed, before shaking herself from her stupor.

"You've proved your point," she said, though knowing it could have been an elaborate parlour trick, "now bring it back."

"Oh no, not yet," the creature said, writhing and pulsing as if it were laughing. "The test is not over. It will only be a fully proven point when the pendent returns itself. Once someone picks it up, it and everything within a ten meter radius will be returned here, and you will see how the biometric rhythms of another universe are different. Only then will it be a successful test."

"But I don't want to bring anything into this dimension. I want to send those wretched mutants out of it!"

"Yes, my dear, but _I_ may want to bring resources into this dimension. Our agreement is a two-way street, is it not?"

Before Haruka could answer the symbiont inside her writhed again. She fell to the ground, her body wracked with agony as it pressed against her spine.


	3. Chapter 3

"Leo, you're gonna wear a track in the floor if you don't stop pacing!"

Raphael folded his arms and stood in his brother's path, but Leonardo side-stepped him.

"I can't help it, Raph," he said. "They've been in there for over an hour."

"Chill, bro. Donnie knows what he's doing," Michelangelo said from the couch. "I think, anyway."

Leonardo grunted and continued to pace, but stood stock-still as the greying face of his father appeared in his path. Splinter planted his walking stick firmly on the floor; his gnarled pink hands gripped it tightly.

"My son," he said, gently but with authority. "Your brother is right. Your pacing will achieve nothing. Mei Pei Chi simply needs time for nature to take its course, and Donatello is there if she needs him."

"Yeah," Michelangelo said, getting up to stand beside Leonardo. "I didn't know the chick could scream as loud as she did when she called for Don, but now he's there I'm sure she's totally fine."

Splinter placed one hand on Leonardo's arm and led him away.

"Come and sit, my son. Some tea will help to clear your mind. And we can watch my recorded stories to show you that you have nothing to worry about. Toni and Denise are both about to give birth, and we will finally find out who the fathers are. At least you do not have that problem…"

It was an agonising wait watching equally painful television, but at long last the door to the Greenhouse opened and Donatello beckoned Leonardo to enter. He closed the door behind them to block out the rest of the eager, anxious eyes.

"Mei?"

Leonardo rushed across to the tray of soil which had now been thoroughly churned up and spilled onto the floor.

"Oh, Leonardo," Mei said, reaching out for him.

Don looked elsewhere as the two embraced. He wiped his brow and then dusted off his hands. It was finally done.

The Greenhouse was filled with the heady smells of birth and ordure, though of course Donatello had planned for that. He reached for the wall control panel and switched on the air filter.

"How many?" Leo asked, his voice trembling just slightly.

"Three," Mei said, and shifted aside to show him the eggs that were half-buried in the soil.

"Was it…bad?" Leo asked, his vocabulary vastly reduced by shock and exhaustion.

"It was painful," Mei said, closing her eyes briefly, "but Donatello helped me." She turned to look at him. "Thank you so much," she said. "I could not have done it without you."

Don waved off the compliment.

"You did all the hard work," he said. "I was more of a…cheerleader."

Leo chuckled and grimaced at the same time as such a scene flashed in his head.

"Anyway, you guys," Don said, "it's time to choose the gender and tuck the little guys in the incubators."

Leo and Mei looked from the eggs to each other, and then at the glass boxes.

"Well, like we agreed," Leo said, looking to Mei for confirmation, "I think we should have one boy and one girl."

Mei nodded.

"And the third?" Don asked.

"Well," Mei said, "we had already decided on a boy and a girl, and if we had more, well, we agreed that we would let you choose for us, because of all of your hard work."

Don took a step backwards and held up his hands.

"Oh, no, I couldn't. It's your family –"

"And you're part of our family," Leo said firmly. "We want you to choose for us, as a sort-of thank you."

"Please, Donatello, for us," Mei said, and then grinned. "Besides, we would only fight otherwise. No doubt Leo would want another girl –"

"—and Mei another boy," Leo added. "So really you'd be doing us a favour."

Don chuckled and let his hands drop.

"Okay, if it's what I need to do to keep the peace, I'll do it."

Both Mei and Leo grinned, and Don handed out towels to cradle the eggs in. He lifted the third himself.

"Geez, these are heavy," Leo said. He looked at Mei. "Rather you than me."

Mei rolled her eyes.

"Typical male."

Leonardo deposited his egg into the hotter of the incubators for the girl and Mei placed hers into the cooler one for the boy. Don hesitated, looking from one to the other. Mei urged him on, and eventually he crossed to the incubators. He settled the egg down beside the other in the cooler incubator.

"A boy?" Leo said, with an expression as close to pouting as he could get. "I was sure you'd pick another girl."

Donatello shrugged and hooked his thumbs into his tool belt. Mei clapped her hands with delight.

"I dunno. Maybe it was to please Mei, because I _never_ want to hear that scream again. I've never run so fast in my life!"

Mei blushed and punched Donatello's arm. He feigned pain.

"I'm sorry, Don, but I was frightened. Natural instinct didn't exactly kick in as much as I had hoped. Thank you again for helping me."

"It was nothing anyone else couldn't have done. Now," he said, turning away from the compliments, "I think there are a few excited uncles, and aunt and a grandpa who'll want to see these little guys too."

Mei reluctantly closed the door to the Greenhouse, her fingers weary on the door handle.

"I think I shall need to get some rest now," she said, her shoulders slumped.

"I'm glad you've finally realised that _four hours_ after I told you to go to bed," Leo said, keeping as much annoyance out of his voice as possible, but failing miserably.

"I'm too tired to be cross with you right now," Mei said.

Mona glared at Leo and walked over to take her friend's arm.

"C'mon, let's get you cleaned up and settled down. You've had a big day! The guys are going out on patrol, but Master Splinter and I can look after the 'kids', isn't that right Grampa?"

Splinter smiled at the use of the term and nodded.

"Babysitting is nothing new to this rat after brining up _that_ brood," he said, pointing one long-nailed thumb over his shoulder at his four sons.

Mei nodded and allowed herself to be led towards the steps to her quarters. She looked down when they reached the high catwalk to see the brothers giving their weapons one last check before they went out.

"Be careful, Leonardo," she called out. "Tired or not, if something happens to you I will be _very_ cross."

"We'll be fine Mei," Leo said, giving her his most reassuring grin. "Have a good rest."

Leonardo waited until Mona and Mei had disappeared out of sight before lowering his gaze. Immediately his eyes swung towards the Greenhouse.

"C'mon, Papa," Raphael said, grabbing Leo by the shoulder strap. "Leo Jr, Leo II and Leona will still be where when you get back. But right now we're pickin' up Casey and we're gonna go bust some heads, or Uncle Raphie is gonna get a little upset, a'right?"

It wasn't long before the four turtles and Casey Jones were hopping the rooftops of New York City, on the prowl for any of the wide variety of scumbags out causing trouble.

"There ain't nothin' happenin' tonight," Casey said as the group traversed the gap between two apartment buildings.

"Maybe that's because your big mouth won't stop yappin'," Raph said, swinging from the top of a fire escape and landing noiselessly on the building's roof. "You're warnin' them away!"

"My big mouth? You eva actually looked in a mirror, pal?" Casey replied.

"Nah," Raph said, "I'm afraid I'll say 'Bloody Mary' three times and _you'll_ appear."

Don was both surprised and unsurprised that Leo didn't step in and chew out the two for their bickering, light-hearted though it was. Normally he would have nipped it in the bud long before. But then, normally Leo wouldn't have just become a father of three. _Three if the eggs are fertilised, that is_, Don thought, though he pushed his worries aside.

"Yo, Donnie! Come look at this!" Michelangelo called.

Donatello back-flipped across the roof – it was the quickest way – and landed right where Mike was pointing. Leo had joined them too, taking a break from Cloud Nine, no doubt. Don stared down at the item on the rooftop and his brows drew together.

"It looks like a pendant," he said. "But… I'm not aware of any metal that should glow like that."

The little crescent moon was pulsing with a bright light, as if it were fading in and out of existence. Raphael appeared at Don's left shoulder and stuck his head in to see what they had found.

"I've left Case on lookout. What've you found, a necklace or somethin'? Big whoop."

The little silver moon had stopped glowing as soon as Raph had arrived. He reached out to grab it, but to everyone's collective relief nothing happened. Raph eyed them warily.

"What, you all turned into wimps now or somethin'?" Raph turned it over in his hands. "Hey, there's somethin' written here. 'To my darling Haruka –"

At that moment the metal glowed brightly again, and Raphael's fingers closed around it as if pulled by magnets.

"Oh, crud."

Casey Jones turned away from the street as he heard a cacophonous bang. In a flash of bright light the four turtles were gone, along with a large, perfectly circular chunk of roof where they had been standing.

"Jesus Christ!" Casey bellowed.

The shout echoed outwards in the otherwise empty air.


	4. Chapter 4

"Dear Haruka, your pendant has returned."

Haruka sprinted from her living quarters down into the hidden lab, throwing all decorum aside. The vast majority of the MedTechCorp employees had gone home for the night anyway. Only the biomechanical manufacturing plants were still operational within the vast skyscraper, churning out litres of synthetic blood, miles of synthskin, and working on individually coded limbs, bones and muscle. Haruka skidded around a corner and threw herself down the lab stairs. The alien's bioship technology had allowed her already prestigious company to shoot miles ahead in the synthetic medical market. As she descended to the ground floor her breath hitched in her chest. But at what cost?

"Your pendant has brought us some guests, Haruka dear."

The woman's face crumpled in fury.

"More mutants? Instead of helping me to rid the city of the infernal things you've brought me more of them?"

"Now, now, Haruka. Not in front of the guests."

Immediately she doubled over as the creature inside her churned.

The four turtles stood in the middle of a strange, sponge-like platform, the building's roof still beneath their feet. They watched as a woman screamed at them before clutching her head and folding up as if in extreme pain.

"Anyone want to explain what the shell just happened?" Michelangelo asked.

"Yeah, an' where's Casey?" Raph added.

The woman struggled to her feet and looked closely at them, her gaze descending into a look of pure fury. Her gaze could have melted metal.

"Mutants! And mutant turtles, no less!"

Michelangelo reached for his nunchucks.

"Anyone else get the feeling that this chick isn't a fan of ours?"

The woman let out a feral growl and launched herself at the nearest wall. She smashed a glass panel and pulled out a handgun.

"I'm gettin' that feelin' too," Raph said, spinning his sai.

"This isn't the time to ask questions, guys," Leo said, drawing his katana. "We need to get out of here, and fast!"

The four brothers leapt into action as the woman began firing erratic shots at them.

"Flithy vermin! Just like the rest! And where is my pendant?"

"Geez lady, you wanna take the crazy down a notch?" Raph said as he deftly dodged a bullet.

The woman fired again, but when the shot entered into the soft and spongy pink wall of the chamber she fell to her knees, clutching her side.

"I'm sorry, I'm sorry!" she screamed. There was a pause as the turtles looked on in confusion. "No! I'm sorry! I did not kill my father! Please, why are you punishing me like this?"

The walls vibrated swiftly as currents of light pulsed through them. Donatello frowned deeply as he saw the woman's abdomen light up in rhythm with the walls. He blinked and looked around the huge chamber, trying to take as much in as possible.

"This is amazing," he said.

"That may be," Leo said, pulling on the strap of Don's bag, "but right now we can't stop to sight-see."

Don nodded and followed his brothers as they leapt upwards to the top of the laboratory, making good their escape and leaving the woman to writhe on the floor, agonised.

Once they were safely ensconced in a dark alleyway, Donatello took the sickle moon from Raphael and examined it.

"I have no idea what just happened," he said, his shoulders slumping in defeat. "And I definitely don't recognise that skyscraper or the company. MedTechCorp… I've never heard of them."

Leonardo jumped up between the buildings and hung from the edge of one, surveying the surrounding area before dropping back down.

"But we do appear to still be in Manhattan," he said. "Around Midtown, I'd say. But…it's different."

Don turned the pendant over in his hands again and read the inscription.

"Well, my best guess – and please let me stress that it is just a guess – is that somehow when Raph picked up this necklace it transported us to some kind of parallel or alternative universe."

Raphael threw his hands up and made to punch the nearest wall, though he restrained himself.

"Oh great, how original," he said through gritted teeth. "It's not like we've never done _that_ before."

Leonardo crossed his arms and stared up and the huge skyscraper they had just escaped from.

"Well, however we got here, you can bet that the woman in that building had something to do with it, and if she did, she can send us back."

Mike nodded.

"Yeah," he said, "but she didn't exactly seem like the friendly type, y'know? More like the 'I'm-gonna-blow-your-head-off' type." Mike laced his fingers behind his head and sighed. "Mei totally called it," he said.

"What?" Leo asked.

"She knew something was gonna happen. She's gonna be super-pissed with you when we get home."

"First of all," Don said quickly to stop the impending comeback from Leonardo, "I think we need to scout for some information. We need to find out who that woman was, what the company is, and where exactly we are. Then we can start making a plan to get back."

Raphael nodded, winking at Don in thanks for dispersing the impending death of Michelangelo.

"Right. That crazed moron with the gun said something about 'more mutants,' so I say we head to wherever they are and start askin' there."

"Good plan, guys," Leo said, regaining his lost composure. "The only question is where do we start?"

"I say let's just pick a direction and go that way," Mike said.

"An' I'm guessin' that since crazy up there don't like mutants," Raph said, jerking a thumb towards the MedTechCorp building, "the mutants are gonna be as far away from that tower of terror of hers as possible."

"Okay, then let's go this way!"

Michelangelo leapt upwards along a fire escape, and the others followed suit. Don slipped the thin silver chain around his neck as the brothers made their way deeper into this strange and new New York.

It seemed identical in many ways. It had the same streets, the same stores; the people were nothing out of the ordinary – for New Yorkers at least. It was only when the crossed into East Harlem that things began to change. Buildings that they had seen standing in perfect order only hours before were suddenly tumbledown and derelict. The roads had become potholed and burnt out, and huge expanses of chain link fence had been erected for miles at a time. As they crept closer to what was clearly the epicentre of the district brightly coloured lights appeared in the distance, and the sounds of several types of music melded into one, all with the deep, bass undertones of a dance beat. The streets began to fill with mutants of every shape and size. Donatello whistled quietly.

"Geez, this place is… I don't even know how to describe it," he said.

"Awesome?"

"Freaky?"

"Dangerous?"

"All of the above, I guess," Don replied to his brothers' suggestions.

"I think we can safely go down to ground level now," Leo said. "But stay alert and try not to look conspicuous."

"For once, Leo, I don't think that's gonna be a problem," Raph said.

They descended to the streets, glancing around at the sights that greeted them. Shop fronts had been crudely painted over to advertise whatever the mutant squatter was selling. Booze, drugs, sex; it was all clearly available out in the open.

"This is not a place I'd want to take my Grandma," Raph said under his breath.

They received several looks of curiosity and fear, but most mutants simply walked on by – granted though, at a wide berth when they eyed the weapons the turtles were carrying.

"This is kinda cool in a creepy, weird way," Michelangelo said. "It's like were home, but don't have to hide any more."

"Yeah, and home's gone to Hell in a hand basket," Raph added.

"Don't get used to it," Leo said firmly. "We're not staying."

"Who said we wanted to?" Raph asked.

There seemed to be mutants of every conceivable kind: reptiles, birds, and various mammals from the more innocuous house pets to the more exotic-looking. A half-human and half-giraffe mutant craned its long neck downwards to get a good look at them, as if it recognised them somehow. However, it simply walked on, its long legs taking huge strides away.

Broken street lamps flickered on and off, their beat interrupted by the coloured glow of strips of neon lights. Street vendors hawked their sordid wares in the noisy streets, and several 'mutants of the night' approached them.

"Hey suga," one said, draping a filthy feather boa around Don's neck, "gimme some cash and I'll take you to the moon and back. Ya look like ya need it."

"Uh –"

"No, thank you ma'am," Leonardo said, stepping in to unwind the greasy feathers from around his brother's neck. "We're fine, ma'am."

The mutant, some kind of lizard hybrid – possibly a bearded dragon, Don thought as he wiped down his skin – cocked an eyeridge and bobbed her head.

"A'right, sug," she said, batting her eyes at Leo. "You a polite one. You missin' out on all the nasty I can bring to your nice."

"He said, 'we're not interested', lady," Raphael said, pointedly fingering the handles of his sai.

The mutant's eyes widened and she backed off, holding up her scaly, long-fingered hands.

"A'right, a'right, I'm jus' tryin' to make a livin', don't want no trouble."

Leonardo nodded and signalled for Raphael to stand down.

"We need some information," he said.

"Bout what?" the mutant asked.

"That's not your concern. Could you tell us where the best place to gather info would be, please?"

"Mmm-umm, you are a polite one. Well, it depends on what you after, but the best place is prolly UgBugs – you'll see a big bright sign for the 'Ugly Bug Ball'. It's the main hotspot here, always jumpin', though the owner is a crazy bi-atch." She looked the brothers up and down. "You from outta town or somethin'?"

"That's not your concern," Raph said.

The mutant crossed her arms and opened her mouth to protest, but she seemed to spot something over Raphael's shoulder.

"A'right, y'all shoo now. One of my best clients has just arrived."

She flung the boa around her neck and strutted across the street in impossibly high stilettos, briefly silhouetted by the rising steam from the grates.

"Why, Officer Samson," she said, her tail swinging carefully. "Ah do declare, this is a wonderful surprise!"

Michelangelo rubbed his eyes as he saw the mutant hang on the arm of a middle-aged human male. The man smiled at her and ran a hand along the soft spikes of her reptilian 'beard'.

"This place is just too weird," Mike said.

"Don't worry about Simon," a nearby street vendor cooking very suspicious looking hotdogs said. "Everyone thinks he's weird."

"_He_?" Mike asked as he watched the man and the mutant walk away.

"Come on, Mikey," Leo said, pulling his brother away. "We need to look for this 'UgBugs' place and see what we can find out there.

With one last look at the mutant and his client, the foursome headed deeper into the sordid suburb.


	5. Chapter 5

"Hey! The guys!"

Casey Jones thundered through the passageway from 2nd Time Around to the turtles' new lair. His arms and legs pumped back and forth, working like a train. He skidded around the final corner and threw himself through the automatic doorway.

"The guys! It's the guys!"

"Mister Jones!" Splinter's shout echoed against the high ceilings of the lair. "Mei Pei Chi is asleep. Have some consideration."

Casey threw down his sports bag, various bats, racquets and balls spilling over the floor in a noisy clatter.

"I'm sorry, Masta' Splinta', but it's the guys."

He doubled over to catch his breath.

"So you have said. What is it about my sons?"

"They're gone. They just…vanished into thin air!"

Splinter's surprise at the statement was expressed only with the careful arching of one furry eyebrow.

"Explain to me the circumstances surrounding this incident, Mister Jones. Please, sit."

Splinter ushered Casey to the couch and sat down next to him.

"It was all normal an' all, until Mikey called Donnie over t' look at somethin'. I was standin' guard when Raph went over to see what was happenin'. I heard him say somethin' about a necklace and he picked it up. An' then they vanished in this big, bright explosion! Half the buildin's roof went with em'!"

"Hmm." Splinter gripped the top of his cane. "This is a most perplexing situation, if an unsurprising one, considering my sons' reputation for getting into trouble. And it is most unfortunate timing, as Leonardo and Mei have just given birth to their first clutch of eggs."

Casey sat back and palmed his eyes.

"I know," he said. "Leo was over the moon about it." He slammed his fists down on the cushions beside him. "I wish there was somethin' I coulda done!"

"You could not have known, I have no doubt of that," Splinter said. He sighed. "I do not know how I will tell Mei or Mona, or what to do about this unusual circumstance."

"You don't need to worry about telling us, Sensei."

Splinter and Casey looked up to see both Mona and Mei standing with their arms crossed on the upper catwalk. Both their expressions were stoney.

"We heard it all," Mona said, her long tail beating against the mesh flooring. "And as soon as they come back, I am going to kick each of your son's asses from here to kingdom come!"

"Think that might be the place?" Michelangelo asked, pointing to a huge illuminated sign.

"What gave it away, Mike?" Raph asked, "Was it the giant picture of cartoon bugs dancing or was it the huge-ass lettering saying 'Ugly Bug Ball'?"

"Whoa, park that 'tude at the door," Mike said, as was rewarded with a smack to the back of the head. "Ow!"

"Knock it off, you two," Leonardo said firmly. "We can't allow ourselves to fight each other. We're in a strange place, and I'm sure it's full of dangers. So put your mongoose and cobra acts in separate cages and be on your guard."

"Yeah, yeah," Raph said, though he turned his attention from Michelangelo to the entrance of the building.

The place was pulsing with activity. Mutants of all shapes and sizes were walking in and out of what appeared to be a huge nightclub. They were hanging on each other, and there were even a few human clients. Everyone seemed to be drinking and smoking some very suspicious smelling cigarettes. The club was nestled in the bottom floor of a huge building that seemed to be in better shape than most others around it.

Despite their ninja weapons, the turtles had no trouble getting past the bouncers on the front door. The black-clad dog-mutant simply nodded at them and wished them a good evening. The reason for this very quickly became apparent. Everyone seemed to be carrying some kind of weapon. Mostly the mutants had guns, but several had ninja-like weapons. The foursome was clearly not that unusual.

"I bet none of them know how to use those things," Raph said above the rising dance music.

Leonardo nodded and pointed in the direction of a doorway.

"Let's not find out," he called. "Head over to that door, we might find somewhere quieter to get some information!"

They filed quickly through the dance floor – or rather, everyone but Michelangelo did. He danced his way through the crowds, blowing kisses at they appreciated his moves.

"Thank you very much!" he said, but was soon yanked into the quieter area by his bandana tails.

One they went through the doorway, the atmosphere changed immediately from an alcohol-fuelled orgy to a softly-lit lounge complete with a piano player and a large central stage that was currently empty.

"Wow, I can hear again," Donatello said, banging lightly on the side of his head.

Several patrons in the half-empty room turned towards them, but most looked away in disinterest and turned their attention back to their drinks.

"Let's head to the bar and see if we can find anything out," Leo said.

He led them over to the side of the room and they leant on the shining bar surface. Beside Don a mutant was sipping what appeared to be whiskey. Apart from the hair, she looked very much like a mutant turtle. The shell was certainly a give-away. _Mei's a female mutant turtle and she doesn't have hair_, Don thought. _But then, I guess mutants can come in all kinds of forms_. The turtle cast a sidelong glance at them, but returned to her drink.

Leonardo signalled to the bartender through the haze of cigarette smoke. The large iguana mutant walked over to them, his dark eyes twitching.

"What can get you, Newface?" he asked, drying off a glass and setting it under the bar.

"We need some information," Leo said. The iguana's eyes twitched towards the female turtle and then back again. "We're…new in town, like you guessed. We need to find somewhere to stay and find out more about the city."

The iguana's eyes swirled as it looked them up and down in turn. He jumped as the female turtle slammed down her empty glass and lit a cigarette.

"Are these guys giving you a problem, Iggy?" she asked, pointedly blowing smoke into Donatello's face as she slipped off her bar stool.

Don coughed and waved his hand in front of his face. He was surprised to see how tall she was, taller even than himself, until he saw the exceptionally tall stiletto boots she wore. She was dressed in very little, only the boots with fishnet stockings underneath, held up by a matt leather garter belt. A gun was holstered on it. She wore a matching brassiere across her carapace, despite lacking anything like breasts. She had a studded collar around her neck, and her face, framed with irregularly cut hair, was decorated with a pattern of red makeup across her eyes, and one juicy dot of red on her bottom lip. The mutant was muscular and heavily scarred; Don thought back to 'Simon', but despite her lack of secondary sex characteristics, this mutant did appear to be female.

"They say they're new in town, ma'am," Iggy said. "Looking for somewhere to stay and some information."

"Hmm." The female turtle took another long drag of her cigarette.

Donatello turned to face her dead on and tried to give her a genuine smile.

"We would appreciate any help you could give us," he said.

Her impassive yellow eyes stared at him, but suddenly and briefly widened. She stubbed out her cigarette on the bar.

"I'll take care of this, Iggs," she said. She then motioned for the four turtles to follow her. "Come with me."

Leonardo nodded, but when she turned her back he signalled to the others to be on their guard. They followed her around the back of the bar and out into a stairwell.

Once the door had closed tightly behind Michelangelo the woman lunged forward and pinned Don against the nearest wall. Don struggled briefly against the strength of her arms but was able to push her off.

"Calm down, lady, or you'll get this sai jammed somewhere the sun don't shine," Raph said as he grabbed her and pushed her onto her knees.

She struggled until Mike added his weight and together they immobilised her.

"Where did you get that pendant?" she said. "Are you working for Michio? How dare you show your faces here!"

Leonardo sheathed his katana and held up his hands, palms out.

"We aren't working for anyone," he said. The female glowered at him. "We found the pendant on a rooftop. When we picked it up we ended up here. We don't even think we're in our own dimension."

"_What_?" the female spat. "This is bullshit, and it sounds like something Michio would dream up. Sending turtles after me, to gain my trust and then kill me, just like she killed my father?"

Donatello raised an eyeridge and stepped forward. He crouched down and looked into the female's face, pulling some of her hair aside. She growled; he frowned. There was something familiar about her face.

"Doesn't this seem strange, guys?" he asked. "I mean, stranger than it already was," he added as he stood up. "We appear in that creepy bio chamber and some crazy lady demands the pendant Raph picked up –"

"—and some crazy lady here then demands it," Raph added.

He pushed down harder as the woman tried to get up, glaring at him.

"The first one cries out that she didn't kill her father," Don continued.

"And then this one accuses someone else of killing _her_ father," Leo said.

"And if you look closely enough, this one does actually look a little bit like the woman in the MedTechCorp building."

The female turtle stopped struggling and looked straight up at Don.

"A woman in the MedTechCorp building who wanted the pendant and looked like me? Or rather I like her?"

"Yeah," Don said, his brows drawing further together.

"Did you catch her name?" the female asked.

"We didn't exactly stop to exchange pleasantries," Raph said, "bein' that she was tryin' to kill us an' all."

The woman sagged further downwards, no longer requiring any strength to hold her down.

"I think we have a lot to talk about," she said. "Come with me, no tricks this time. If what you're saying is what I think you're saying, we may have a common enemy."

Leonardo held up his hands again.

"We're not looking for an enemy," he said. "We just want to go home."

The female took her gun out of her holster. Donatello drew in a sharp breath, but she simply disengaged the ammo clip and held it out to him.

"Here," she said, "take this in exchange for the necklace."

"That's pretty trusting of you," Don said, looking to Leo.

The female gave a cold laugh and placed the ammo at Don's feet.

"I don't trust you," she said. "I don't trust anyone in this sordid dump. But I don't think I have much choice. Four against one doesn't sound like it'll go in my favour. And I don't particularly want my eyes gouged out by one of those," she said, nodding at Raph's drawn sai.

Leonardo stood in thought for a moment, before nodding.

"Okay, we'll bite," he said. "But no tricks, or you may not want to buy any new hats," he added, gesturing to the katana on his back.

Don handed her the pendant and picked up the ammo clip, slotting it into his belt. Leonardo nodded, and Don held out a hand to help the female up. She took it warily and stared down at him, before beginning to ascend the stairs. Don took up the rear, looking back down as they climbed. _What next?_ he thought. _What next?_


	6. Chapter 6

The group climbed upwards for several minutes. Don counted at least eleven floors. Even on the higher levels the building still seemed to thrive. The first few floors couldn't have been taken as anything other than a brothel, as clients came and went so frequently. Scantily clad mutants hung on their doorframes, calling out to the customers as they passed.

"Thought you'd given up turning tricks, Madame Red," one slinky tabby cat-mutant in pink lingerie called out.

"Shut your face and open your legs, Mittens," the female turtle, 'Madame Red' called out; there was nothing but mirth in her voice. "My business is my business."

Mittens purred; the little bell around her neck twinkled.

"I can see why you'd take on that challenge though. Four sexy men of the same species? Mmm-umm, that'd make a change."

Madame Red waved at Mittens, and the tabby disappeared back inside her room.

When they reached the top of the building Madame Red pulled a key out of her garter belt and unlocked a door. She went inside, and as the foursome followed they saw it was a large, old, but well kept apartment. It was spacious, and definitely the cleanest place they had encountered so far, though all the furniture was in various states of disrepair, the worst offenders disguised with threadbare throw blankets. On one worn out sofa a large dog had been lounging. It lifted its head at the sight of the visitors, leapt to its feet and growled deeply.

"It's okay, Nym," Madame Red said. "They're with me."

The dog, Nym, stopped growling and sat down to scratch behind its ears.

"Oh, okay Des," it said, squinting as it hit a particularly sensitive spot. "Just being on my guard."

Mikey gave an involuntary squeak and pointed.

"That dog can talk!" he said.

Nym blinked slowly and deliberately, and drummed his front toes on the hard floor.

"You're a big, walking, talking turtle, and you're surprised that _I _can talk? Puh-lease."

Don clicked Mike's jaw closed with one finger as the dog trotted over to Madame Red, or 'Des' as he had called her; she petted his head.

"Ooh, yeah. That's the stuff. So who are these schmoes anyway?" he asked.

"I'm not sure yet, but I think they might be more of Michio's victims. Look."

Madame Red held out the pendant and the dog squinted his eyes at it.

"Is that the pendant you told me about? The one that bitch stole? Damn. We're all her victims. I'd like to take a big, wet dump right in her –"

"Nym!"

The dog, an Alsatian by the look of it, snapped his jaws shut abruptly and looked sheepishly up at Madame Red and then at the turtles.

"Sorry, I can get a little carried away sometimes," he said.

"No shit," Raph added.

The dog grinned – actually _grinned_ – and cocked his head to one side, looking at Raph.

"This one," he said, "I like."

Madame Red gestured to the cluster of chairs in the middle of the roomy apartment and gestured for them to sit. Her long leather boots creaked again as she sat down and lit another cigarette.

"So," she said, exhaling more discreetly this time, "I suppose the first thing we need to do is introduce ourselves."

"You first," Raph said, perching on the arm of Donatello's chair. "I heard you called 'Madame Red' downstairs.

The female turtle laughed and shook her head.

"That's what the girls and boys call me. My real name is Desdemona, but you can call me Des. It wastes less oxygen," she said, taking another puff. "You've already met Nym," she said, gesturing to the dog that had settled himself at her feet. "So, who are you?"

Leonardo sat forward.

"I'm Leonardo, that's Michelangelo, and that's Raphael –"

"—and the one you tried to kill is Donatello," Raph said sharply.

Desdemona blew smoke at him, but nodded at Donatello.

"Sorry about that," she said simply.

Don reached one hand up to touch his throat and nodded back.

"Don't sweat it, I guess."

"Those are interesting costumes," Des said. "Very ninja-y."

"We are ninjas," Leonardo said. "And we need to get back to our family. Do you know the person who brought us here? This 'Michio' from MedTechCorp?"

"Yes, I know her," Des said around the cigarette clenched in her teeth. "She's my 'sister', as – Donatello, is it?" she asked; Don nodded. "—as Donatello recognised." She sat back and threw her long legs outwards. "Got time for a long story?" she asked.

"I don't think we'll be going anywhere soon, dudette," Mike said.

Des nodded and closed her eyes, savouring the smoke for a moment.

"The 'Michio' I mentioned is Michio Haruka. She's the one referred to in the pendant's inscription. She's the daughter of Michio Hiraku, head of the huge Japanese firm Kinkou Industries and its American subsidiary MedTechCorp. If you haven't heard of Michio Hiraku," Des said, raising one eyeridge, "then you really aren't from this universe. The whole basis of his company is – or rather, was – to develop new and more cost-effective ways of creating biomechanical limbs and bioreplicant blood, tissue, muscle, bone marrow et cetera. He was hailed as a hero for his work, and even received the Nobel Prize for Science. It wasn't long before his daughter graduated from university with top honours and joined him. He decided to give her control of the US MedTechCorp, and he would return to Japan. Michio, however, didn't share her father's philanthropic streak, and things soon went downhill.

"Not long after she gained control of the company she took her father prisoner. She had been in cahoots with a shady company, the Therese Garamond Research Institute. Michio stole some chemicals from them, including a compound that was able to mutate human and animal genes."

"TGRI," Donatello said. "We have a TGRI in our universe too, but it doesn't stand for that. But they did have a substance that sounds identical to the one you're talking about: the ooze that created us."

Desdemona waved a hand, smoke trailing through the air.

"I'm not into that science-crap," she said. "All I know is what my father told me. In the end, Michio threatened to contaminate the city's water supply with the 'ooze' as you call it and blame TGRI unless they handed over their entire stockpile. My father pleaded with her not to go through with the madness, but she wouldn't listen."

"Didn't anyone miss him? Your father, I mean?" Don asked.

"Michio took care of that. She claimed that my father had gone missing on a trip back to Japan, presumed dead. I'm sure his poor wife was devastated, but Michio didn't care about anyone but herself.

"One day she apparently summoned my father down to a secret lab in the bowels of the building, ushered by paid people who knew better than to open their mouths. She showed him what she had been working on. She was injecting the 'ooze' into lab rats she was breeding illegally, trying to use them to help grow better bioreplicant parts faster, but all she was succeeding in doing was creating hideous half-human, half-rat monsters. She needed my father's expertise, but of course he refused. My father said he struck her across the face, but he knew immediately that kit had been a mistake. Michio called for the 'things' – the pet turtles my father kept in his office and doted upon. They were myself and my brother Cassio. Michio knew how much he loved us, and asked him once more to help her. Again he refused, and Michio called for us to be placed in front of her. She picked us up and injected us with the ooze, and over the course of a few days we mutated into what we are now – though I was only four, and Cassio was two."

"That's very similar to what happened to us," Leonardo said.

"Yeah," Mike added, "but without the crazy scientist and the creepy body parts and being injected. Ick."

Des nodded and extinguished her cigarette, but did not reach for a new one.

"Michio didn't stop there. She then carried out her threat and contaminated some of the city's water supply. Mutants started appearing everywhere. Michio made sure, of course, that TGRI were blamed, even though they had done what she wanted. They were finished, and the heads of the company went to prison. Michio vowed to do everything in her power to help clean up TGRI's mess and help the poor people who had been affected by it."

"She's certainly changed her tune now," Raph said sarcastically.

"She threw myself, my brother and my father into a cell and left us there for a year, without any light and barely any food. She would occasionally call for me and take blood, poke me with needles and examine me, but she never looked into my face.

"So you see now why I call her my 'sister', and Hiraku my 'father'," Des added, glancing at Donatello.

"Yes," he said. "The last thing to touch you before you mutated was her hand, so when she injected the ooze into you, it was her DNA you mutated with. Your brother, too."

"Yes. And Hiraku really did treat us like his own kind. He called us his 'perfect children', all three of us."

Des's eyes took on a far-away look, and Raphael frowned.

"Three? He take in Nym too?" he asked.

The dog harrumphed loudly.

"Exactly how old do you think I am?" he asked. "I'm four; she's twenty-two!"

Desdemona patted Nym's head to calm him into submission.

"Yes, three of us. But it wasn't Nym. You see, the reason why Michio was taking so much interest in me was that she was trying to clone me. She eventually managed it, but the clone was male. How she managed it I'll never know; the point of her experiment was to see if two mutant clones could mate – just as a way to torment my father."

The four turtles shared looks of disgust. Mikey screwed up his face.

"Eww, gross," he said.

Des shook her head.

"Yes. She called my clone Othello," she said with a disgusted laugh.

"How very Shakespearian," Don said.

"Huh?"

"Later, Mikey."

Desdemona shook her head again.

"Her experiment didn't work. No matter how hard she…made us try, I was never fertilized. Eventually Michio gave up and threw us back into the cell for good.

"Eventually my father managed to escape with us in tow. He made his way to the new suburb, MuTo – Mutant Town. The mutants were banished from general society, and hunted like animals if they were found outside the area the government eventually fenced off. My father set himself up as a doctor to the mutants. He made money by treating them, and even down-and-out humans who couldn't afford proper medical care. We were doing okay, and we had bought a large room from one of the slum lords, but my father had a stroke and couldn't work any more, and no one could help him."

"But, couldn't he have gone back into general society?" Don asked. "The miraculous reappearance of a missing man?"

Des snorted.

"Michio had thought of that. When we escaped, she put out a story that some mutant-loving freak was out masquerading as her beloved, lost father. He couldn't leave MuTo or he would have been arrested. What Michio would have done then, I don't know."

"What happened to him?" Leo asked softly.

"It wasn't long before he died," Des said, finally reaching for another cigarette. "He needed medical treatment that he just couldn't get. He died when I was fifteen. Othello and I took to prostitution to get by – it's a big business here, in case you hadn't noticed. But we kept Cassio out of it; he has a big personality, so he went into cabaret instead. He was thirteen. Eventually we earned enough money to move up and buy out a small bar. We set Cass up as the main star. I'm pretty savvy with money and I have a good head for business, so eventually we ended up here. I own this whole building now, and a few others."

"So what you're sayin' is," Raph said, his beak scrunched in disgust, "that you're a ho turned pimp."

Desdemona looked at him with a deadpan expression.

"No, I'm not. They pay me a small rent for living in the building. What they do in their rooms is their own business; I don't take a cut. I lease out rooms to anyone who needs it, and as long as they keep their noses fairly clean they have a home for as long as they want it. There are some humans living here too," she said, though her expression turned sour. She shifted around in her chair and leaned forward. "But I think that's quite enough about me. What about you? Ninja turtles?"

The brothers looked at one another, and Leonardo shrugged.

"It's…another long story," he said.

Desdemona blew out a ring of smoke and smiled.

"I think we have time."


	7. Chapter 7

"Why? Why have you done this to me? You say you will help me, and I build the parts for your bioship, and yet you never give me what I need!"

"Tsk, tsk, Haruka. You are so impatient. Those mutants were an unforeseen circumstance, but they have proved my point. They were not of this world; I showed you the biorhythms."

Haruka spun around to face the globulous alien half-buried in the organic wall.

"Why should I believe you? You could tell me anything and I wouldn't know better!"

"As I told you before, my dear," the alien said, "the Chett do not lie."

A jolt of pain wracked Haruka's body.

"You will believe what I say because it is the truth. It is simple. They are from another dimension. There are rhythms and streams of energy in this multiverse that you humans, with your tiny brains and narrow minds, will never understand. How I long to get away from you all and back to my own people. Your technology is pitiful, but it is all I have to try to get home."

"Believe me," Haruka said, struggling to her feet and tucking stray strands of black hair behind her ears, "I will be as happy to see you go as you will be to leave."

The Greenhouse was warm when Mei entered it late that night. She scanned her gaze from one incubator to the other, watching her three newly-laid eggs basking under the heat lamps. Donatello's genius shone through once again as she watched the glass boxes regulate their own temperatures. Mei placed her hands on the side of the incubator holding the single egg; the one Leonardo had chosen just a handful of hours before. She bowed her head. What had happened was inevitable. In their luckless existence, fate had once again played a card against them, and Leonardo had been whisked away like a pebble on the waves. Mei sniffed as a hot tear stained the fabric of her maroon mask.

"It'll be okay."

Mei turned to see Mona Lisa standing in the doorway; she hadn't even heard it open. Mona closed it and pulled her friend into a tight hug.

"They'll be back. They always come back! Between Don's brains, Mikey's enthusiasm, Raph's bull-headedness and Leo's determination to get home and see you again, they'll be here sooner than you can whistle 'Carmen'!" Mona held her friend at arm's length. "I know the timing couldn't be worse, but we've just got to hold on."

She dropped her eyes for a moment, blinking away tears.

"Oh, Mona," Mei said, and this time she pulled her friend into an embrace. "I'm sorry. I've been so selfish. You must be missing Raph terribly."

Mona sniffed and squeezed Mei back.

"Yeah, I am. But I'm not worried. They'll be back, just like they always are. And don't call yourself selfish. I'm not the expectant mother!"

The two friends continued to hug in the warmth, lit by the glow of the incubators with the eggs nestling inside them.

In the top floor apartment, the four turtles had just finished telling the long story of their creation and life in their New York, up to the point where Mei laid her eggs and they set out for the rooftops, and all that had then happened. Leonardo sat back and threaded his fingers together.

"So, that's that. And that's why we need to get home as soon as we can."

Desdemona folded her arms, her many scars standing out in relief in the soft light. She raised her head and shook some of her hair away from her face and neck. Donatello's mouth fell open at the sight of the two long, deep scars right across her jugular.

"And here we are," she said. "It sounds as though Michio has acquired some new technology. I find the whole story completely baffling and unbelievable. Alternative dimensions and alien beings? But, you do have the pendant and I've never seen you before – and I would have remembered. Fellow mutant turtles are hard to come by. I know everyone in this city, and they know me."

Raph drummed his fingers impatiently on his knee wraps.

"What's the deal with this pendant anyway?" he asked. "Both you and Mrs Crazy Ass were dead set on gettin' it. Is it magic or somethin'? Cuz it glowed."

Desdemona uncrossed her arms and examined the little crescent moon again. She ran her fingers over the inscription on the back.

"It's Michio's," she said, "but it's not magic. My father gave it to her when he told her he was giving her control of the US business. It belonged to her mother's side of the family; it's a very old heirloom. It wasn't long before my father regretted giving it to her. It was the only memory of his wife that he had left. So," Des said, turning her attention to Donatello, "I stole it back for him. I saw you eyeing my scars," she said as she ran her fingers over the dark green slashes. "Michio gave me the first one. I managed to get the pendant, but I nearly died." Des snorted. "My father was furious. But I survived. Eventually Michio's cronies caught up with me and gave me the second. I lost the pendant this time, but I still kept my life."

"Are you sure you're a turtle?" Michelangelo asked. "Because it sounds like you've got the nine lives of a cat!"

Des shook her head.

"I'm just incredibly lucky, I guess." she said, and then added, "in some ways at least."

Raphael stood up abruptly and fingered his sai. Nym was immediately on his feet with his hackles raised.

"This is all very cozy an' all," Raph said, "but what exactly are we gonna do? We need to get home, pronto."

Desdemona stood and stared him down, before crossing the room to the little bar in one corner.

"Well," she said, pouring herself a liberal measure of what smelled like malt liquor, "I sure as hell can't get you home. But I can protect you while you're here."

Raphael scoffed and twirled his sai.

"Lady, we're _ninjas_," he said. "We don't need no protection from anyone."

Des knocked back her drink and laughed.

"You think all the ninja skills in the world are going to save you from getting stabbed in the ass by a dirty needle?" She spread her arms out wide. "Look around you. This place is a scumhole, full of drug addicts, violent offenders, and people with nothing left to live for. And the humans who come to 'sample the wares' would sooner stab you in the face than look at you. They see mutants as sub-human."

"And how is it that you can protect us from this?" Leonardo asked, casting a warning glance at Raphael.

Des poured herself another drink and gulped it down.

"It so happens," she said, slamming down the heavy-bottomed glass, "that I am queen of this scumhole. People are afraid of how easily I can fuck them up, and have done in the past. I'd kill for less than the loss of a stick of gum – or so I'm told, anyway. I know every little sordid detail of everyone's lives. I have my fingers in a lot of pies, because I've had a lot of fingers in my pie."

Don winced at the vulgarity.

"I know things about important people; a lot of people owe me a lot of money. So they're nice to me so I don't expose anything or call in any debts. I've made a lot of friends in this community. Once I say you're friends of mine, you're family to them."

Leo crossed the room and stood in front of her.

"And what do you want from us in return?" he asked.

"Well," Des said, pacing away from him slowly, "I figure that you need to get into the MedTechCorp building, because if that's where you came from then your best bet is that you'll find your way home there. I have spies on the inside, paid humans." She scrunched her face up again. "Some of the less scummy ones. I'll get them to investigate what you've told me, see if they can get some information. It might take time, but I'm sure we'll find a way to sneak you back in; I'm sure Michio will have tripled her guards after your 'visit'."

"And?" Raph asked, stepping up into Desdemona's face.

"And," she said, lighting yet another cigarette, "you'll get me in too. And once we're inside, you'll help me kill Michio Hotaru."

Leo stared at her for several moments. Raphael's gaze did not waver.

"We'll get you in," Leonardo said, "but we won't help you kill someone. That's not something we can do."

Desdemona sucked thoughtfully on her cigarette. She made sure to blow the smoke away from Raphael's face this time.

"Alright, fine," she said. "I'll give you food and board while you're here, but you work for me. Doing anything you want, it doesn't matter. But you get me inside that building."

"Work for you?" Raph bellowed. "Who do you think you are, lady?"

Leonardo held out a hand to stop Raphael's brewing tirade.

"It's a deal," he said firmly.

He turned to hold the hand out to Des, who took it. The handshake was firm.

"You'll stay here in our apartment," she said. "It takes up the whole top floor, so there's plenty of space and it'll be the safest option."

"Penthouse," Mike said, "nice."

He gave her an exaggerated wink, and for the first time her laugh was genuinely mirthful. She glanced at Nym.

"This one, _I_ like."


	8. Chapter 8

Two a.m. finally arrived. Michio Haruka fell down onto her bed and sank into the huge mattress. She closed her eyes and let a few tears slide down her cheeks. Finally the voice was silent and the symbiont was still; Chett had begun her sleep cycle. Haruka turned over to wipe her face on the Egyptian cotton sheets and sat up. The creature's name was not Chett; whether it actually had a gender was unknown. However, Haruka's human mind sought to categorise everything in familiar terms, and so she did. She stripped off her work clothes and threw them on the floor beside the laundry hamper. The maid would get them in the morning. When she walked into the softly lit bathroom she caught sight of herself in the floor-to-ceiling mirror and shook her head. Her black hair was falling out of its severe bun and hung lankly around her sunken, streaky face. Her collar bones cast sharp shadows in the dimness, and just below the jagged scar on her belly her hip bones jutted out. She turned away and walked up the steps to the sunken bath. The shining taps sprayed steaming water into the tub, and Haruka sat down on the slatted wooden floor as she waited for it to fill.

_Damn that Chett,_ she thought, for it was only now that her mind was free to keep its thoughts to itself. _Damn her - _it_ - for everything! If only I had ordered her killed when she first arrived. Damn it all to hell!_ Haruka reached up and with one abrupt swing swept the contents of a nearby counter to the floor. Bottles and pots of expensive, long untouched cosmetics crashed to the floor and rolled into the filling bath with a splash. Haruka fished them out and added some sweet-smelling bath elixir. She sank into the tub and turned the taps off with her spindly toes. Exhaustion washed over her as the hot water lapped around her small breasts and delicate knees. She sank down until her chin just peeked over the glistening surface and could no longer keep her eyes open. One hand reached up to her throat and her fingers stopped dead. Her face scrunched in anguish and she let her hand drop. _Oh, God…_

"Papa, what are you doing today?"

Michio Hiraku looked up from his endless reams of printouts, the green and white striped paper folding in on itself as it spewed from the industrial printer.

"Haruka, now what did I say about knocking and waiting at doors?"

The man tried to keep his brows drawn together severely, but his fatherly instinct overrode them and he couldn't help but smile as his eight-year-old daughter gazed up at him with those round brown eyes. She chewed on the end of her long black plait as she scrambled into his lap. She looked at the pages, the chemical symbols and scientific terminology; her little face stared intently as if she understood.

"Papa, do you think one day I'll be as smart as you and be able to help you with your work?"

Hiraku kissed the top of her head and squeezed her tightly.

"Nothing would make me prouder my little moonflower," he said. "One day I hope that you can take over from me, and run my companies better than I ever could."

Haruka twisted on his lap and gazed up at him, the plait falling from her mouth.

"Really, Papa?"

"Yes, really," Hiraku said, brushing his daughter's fringe from her eyes. "You are as smart as you are pretty, and you are a very pretty young lady." He grinned as she enveloped him in a tight hug. "I love you, my dear, dear Haruka…"

"…dear Haruka…"

Haruka sat up with a jolt and gasped as the freezing water lapped against her. Her breathing was sharp and shallow as she clambered out of the bath and reached for a towel with trembling hands.

"Dear Haruka, it isn't intelligent to immerse yourself in cold water for extended periods."

She wrapped the thick, soft towel around herself and stalked out of the bathroom. The bedside clock blinked in the dim morning light. Four hours had passed, and Chett was rested. Haruka let out a sob and buried her face in her hands as tinkling laughter echoed in her mind.

There was a gentle knock at the door and Leonardo crossed to open it. Donatello was lit only by the candle he carried, and Leo stepped aside for him to enter.

"Hey," he said as Don set the candle down on the rickety bedside table.

Don waited until the candle was steadied until he gave his brother a grim smile.

"How are you holding up?" he asked.

Leonardo sat on the edge of the bed and let his forearms rest on his thighs. The candlelight glinted yellow off the highly polished blades of the katana that were resting against the opposite wall. His gear sat in a neat pile beneath them, and his bandana was wrapped around one hilt.

"I'm okay, given the circumstances," he said. "It couldn't have been worse timing for something bizarre to happen to us."

Don chuckled dryly.

"It's the old turtle luck running true to form," he said.

Leo was silent, and Don crossed his arms over his plastron.

"We'll get home," he said. "We always do, somehow."

Leonardo clenched his fists and slammed them down on his legs.

"But what if we don't, Donatello?" he said. The words were a shock in the silence, and he toned his voice down. "What if we don't get home? What's going to happen to Mei, and my kids? My _kids_, Don."

Don didn't answer, simply because he had no words of comfort to give. He had walked to his brother's newly designated room in the huge apartment in the hopes of giving him some kind of support, but now he simply stood impotent, backlit by a flickering flame.

"We've been in situations like this before so many times it's not even funny any more," Leo said, digging his nails into his palms, "but we've always made it back. We knew we had to get home, but…this time it's different. I _need_ to get home. I _need_ to be with Mei."

"That's perfectly understandable, given what happened earlier today," Don said.

"It's driving me mad," Leo said. "It's just this intense desire to get home and be with her. I've never felt this way before. I don't think it's something you _can_ understand, Don." Leo gently tapped his fists on his thighs. "I just…need to be with her."

Don dropped his chin to his chest briefly before uncrossing his arms and walking to the middle of the room.

"You're right, Leo," he said, letting his arms hang loose, "it isn't something I can understand. I don't know what to say. But if Master Splinter were here, he would tell you to mediate on those feelings so you can control them. Let them be your motivation for getting home."

Leo let out a long breath and attempted to smile at his brother.

"You're right, Don," he said. "I can't allow my feelings to cloud my mind."

"Right." Don placed a hand on the door handle. "I'll leave the candle here since I don't think you'll be getting any rest any time soon," he said.

"Thanks, Don," Leo said.

They bade their farewells and Donatello gently closed the door behind him. He lingered a little before treading softly back towards his room. He bypassed the door, however, and walked into the large living space they had gathered in earlier. It was all so much to take in. They were home, and yet not at the same time. It was New York, but… _But not as we know it, Jim_, he thought. It was as if they could simply pop open a manhole and jump right back into their normal lives. In reality, they couldn't. Don crossed to one of the large windows and leaned his hands on the glass. The streets below were not their streets. They were filled with a sordid depravity that was mostly underground in their world. Here it was out in the open and plain to see.

He felt the other presence in the room before it made a noise. Don turned from the window to see Desdemona picked out in the pale moonlight. She no longer wore her boots or lingerie, and instead was in bare feet with a gun belt around her hips. Her face was still made up, and her hair set just so. The moon pendant now hung around her scarred neck, glinting.

"Shouldn't you be asleep?" she asked, her thumbs tucked in the belt.

"I could ask the same of you," Don replied, glad of the bo strapped to his back.

"I sleep when I need it," Des said. "You're all anxious to get home, I assume."

"Wouldn't you be if the tables were turned?" Don asked.

Des walked past him and looked out the window. With her stance and her background, she looked like a queen surveying her realm.

"No, I wouldn't be," she said, "but that's irrelevant. I've sent out some messengers to brief my contacts on what to look for. They knew something big was going on, but couldn't find out what. Maybe now they will. They'll report back when it's safe; it may be a few days. Then we can work out where to go from there."

She turned to look him up and down. Her pale eyes seemed to drink in every detail. Don stood his ground and did the same.

"You look like you've been in a lot of fights in your day," he said as his eyes roved from one scar to another.

"I'd say you have been too, but you're a lot more careful than me," Des replied.

It was true that Donatello was not a scarred as his siblings, but it wasn't as a result of less combat.

"My weapon of choice gives me a long range," he said. "Enemies don't tend to get close enough to slice me open."

"I bet they don't," Des said. She fingered the holster at her side and stepped towards him. "It makes me wonder if I could get close enough for you to slice me open with that long weapon of yours."

Don gave the most imperceptible of gulps and stepped forward himself.

"I guess you'd have to try to get close enough first," he said, not quite believing what was happening.

Des stepped around behind him and slid her hand along the bo.

"Sounds like a challenge," she said, her husky voice even lower. "And I like to savour a challenge." She leaned close to her head and breathed, "Get some rest."

Without another word or look she left. Don stared at the space she left vacant and rubbed the back of his head. _Did that actually just happen? And what exactly was 'that' anyway?_ He shook his head. _This day has officially become the weirdest I've ever had_. He headed back to his assigned bedroom and lay down, and soon drifted off into a bleak sleep.


	9. Chapter 9

**9.**

The sugary smell of freshly made pancakes drifted through the air and Donatello stirred in his bed. He pulled the thin blankets up to his chin and snuggled deeper into the mattress, before sitting up sharply and staring around, wide-eyed. His memory flooded back. He had not been safely snoozing in his own bunk and waking up to the smell of breakfast in the lair. Rather he was in an unfamiliar bed, with little prospect of ever seeing home again. The smell of pancakes, however, was real.

He dressed in his gear and strapped his bo to his shell, before following the smell to a large kitchen. Like the rest of the apartment the fittings were in poor but serviceable condition, and in the middle of the room was a large, freshly planed wooden table surrounded by another hodgepodge assortment of chairs. Standing at the stove as if he was in his own home was Michelangelo, deftly flipping pancakes and sipping a cup of coffee.

"Morning, dude!" he said.

"Good morning, Mike," Don said. "Any coffee for me?"

"Sure, help yourself!"

Don lifted the coffee pot and poured himself a full mug. He cradled it in his hands and sat on one of the sturdier-looking chairs.

"Did you sleep?" Mikey asked as he served his brother a plate heavy with pancakes.

Donatello nodded his thanks but only poked at the food with a bent fork.

"I slept eventually, but not well. I had a lot on my mind."

Mike went back to his cooking and nodded.

"Tell me about it, dude. It was hours before I managed to catch some zees."

Don sliced one of the pancakes in two and pushed it around on the plate as Mike finished up and sat down to his own impressive stack. Don sipped his coffee and abandoned his fork.

"What time do you make it?" he asked.

"Probably around six-thirty a.m.," Mike said, spraying crumbs, "which is, like, a record for me!"

"I'd say that, too – on both counts."

Don stared down into his mug and swirled around its contents. Everything was such a blur. Yesterday they had brought what he hoped would be three new members of the family into the world, and now… What now?

"Don't be so glum, chum," Mike said, giving Don as cheerful a smile as possible. "We'll be out of here real soon, back home safe – well, kinda safe, anyway."

"Yeah. It's just this whole place, it feels so…uncomfortable, I guess. It's just not right."

"I know. That Desdemona chick seems like a real ball-buster," Mike said, polishing off his pancakes. "She's kinda scary."

"Yeah… I ran into her last night when I couldn't sleep. She said her spies would get back to her in a few days. Hopefully their intel will help us get back. And hopefully we're not being set up for a big double-cross here."

"I doubt it, dude," Mike said, "you can't fake that kind of anger, and she was totally serious when she said she wanted that Haruka dudette dead."

"Hmm. Well that makes me worried too. This place just seems like it's full of vice and evil. We can't really trust anyone."

"Maybe they just need a force for good. We could go into business: Turtle Titan and his sidekick: Geek Boy!"

Don was just about to voice a dry retort when he was cut off by a new voice.

"Ooh, geeks, my favourite!"

The brothers turned to see another turtle draped in the doorway, wearing a very short pink house robe and very fluffy pink slippers.

"Don't itemise boys, take it all in."

The turtle stepped into the kitchen and sashayed over to the coffee. Judging by his smaller size and different looks, this was not Desdemona's clone. This was the burlesque dancer. Mike and Don shot each other looks across the table as the turtle suddenly clapped his hands together and stood on his tiptoes.

"Eee! Pankcakes, i_also/i_ my favourite!" He turned around and placed his hands on his hips. "Who made these? I'm sure it wasn't the Pankcake Fairy – or was it?"

With a wink he spun back around to lift a few pancakes onto a plate. He grabbed a mug of coffee and sat down delicately across from the brothers.

"I'm Cassio," he said with a grin that showed two rows of straight white teeth. "and I'm absolutely charmed to meet you both. This place is i_so/i_ dreary! Have you met the Doom and Gloom Twins yet? i_Bor/i_-ing!"

"Hi, Cassio," Don said, "it's nice to meet you?" He couldn't help but allow his voice to rise in a question. "I'm Donatello, and this is Michelangelo."

"Nice names," Cassio said, taking a small bite of pancake. He was careful to swallow before he continued. "So, who's responsible for these gorgeous pancakes?"

"That was all Mike here," Don said, clapping Michelangelo on the shoulder. Mike shot him a venomous look.

"Well, Mike, if I can call you that –" Cassio didn't pause for approval – "they are delicious. Bravo my new friend!"

Mike grinned, his jaws clamped shut, trying not to look as terrified as he felt.

"So…" Don said to fill the silence. "Doom and Gloom twins? I take it you mean your siblings?" Cassio nodded, and Don continued. "Yes, we met Desdemona."

"Ah, you meet Doom. She's a bit hard-core, if you know what I mean. Destroy this, threaten that, life is terrible…" Cassio gave a mock shudder. "It gets depressing, and add that to Gloom – ugh! Your pretty faces are a breath of fresh air."

"Don't scare off the guests, Cass."

Mike and Don turned around again as another new voice joined the conversation. This time the turtle's identity was clear. Tall, with the same skin colour and eye colour as Desdemona, this was clearly Othello, the clone. Othello nodded curtly at them and crossed the kitchen to rummage in a cupboard.

"The only thing that will scare them off is your sour face, Elmo," Cassio said. He hide his smile behind his coffee cup and winked at Mike and Don.

Othello stilled, and the package he held in his hand crumpled.

"i_Don't/i_ call me that," he said quietly.

Cassio giggled silently and rolled his eyes. Othello placed the package on the counter – Don read it; it was some kind of protein shake powder – got himself a glass of water and prepared the mixture. Without another word Othello left the kitchen, not even sparing a glance at Cassio.

"See? Gloom. So sour you'd think someone had jammed five lemons into his mouth and made him chew." Cassio rolled his eyes again. "It's all just one big happy family!"

Mike shook his head and grinned.

"It's just like home-sweet-home."

The serenity of Splinter's room was soothing. It washed over Mei like waves of light in the darkness. As it flowed, the paranoid worried that wracked her brain ebbed away. She sat in the lotus position opposite her sensei-come-father-in-law, allowing the candlelight to flicker against her skin and the woody smell of incense to penetrate deep into her being. Leonardo would be fine. He always was.

Nagging doubt gnawed away at Mei's resolve, however. What is this time was different? They had no idea what had happened to the brothers. All they knew was that they were gone. What if this time the worst happened…and Leonardo didn't return?

"We must have faith," Splinter said, his gruff voice softened by compassion. "Many times now my troublesome sons have disappeared or endangered by circumstance, but each time I had faith that they would come home – and each time they did."

"But what if –"

"No," Splinter said so firmly that Mei jolted and opened her eyes. Splinter's greying face was steely. "'What if' has no place in this home." His voice was now hardened by something akin to determination and fear. "We must simply wait and hope."

Mei bowed her head and sighed.

"You are right, Master Splinter, as always."

Splinter reached out and placed a calloused pink hand upon Mei's shoulder.

"Perhaps it would be best if we focused on the impending arrival of the little ones for the time being. No matter what happened they will need their mother to be strong for them."

"And their grandfather also," Mei added.

The pair managed to share a comforting smile before Mei regained her composure and drifted off into a peaceful mediation.

A few levels above, however, the air was not so tranquil. Mona Lisa bent her head over the toilet bowl again as her insides did their best to come out. She retched until her diaphragm hurt and there was nothing left, and then she fell onto her backside and shook her hair from her eyes.

"Oh, man," she said breathlessly, leaning her head against the nearest wall.

She hadn't felt well for the few days before Raphael had gone and got himself lost, but she had managed to hide it. She didn't feel like she had caught a bug or anything, she was just very nauseous. It was worse in the mornings, but no matter how well she felt in the evening, it would be back with a vengeance the next day. Mona pulled her legs up to her abdomen and wrapped her arms around them. She laid her webbed hands one on top of the other. i_I hope I shake this thing soon/i_, she thought. She hugged tighter and imagined that it was Raphael's strong arms that were curled around her instead of her own. She thought about how he would tease her and make jibes and call her a weak loser, but at the same time he would rub her back in the right way and give her a sloppy kiss on the forehead just to make her laugh. She couldn't help but allow a sob to escape her as another wave of nausea washed over her, accompanied by the pangs of fear that maybe this time, her Raphael wouldn't come home.

**10.**


	10. Chapter 10

**Blood Red Moon – Part 10**

Haruka's eyes roved over the strings of numerical code scrolling across the vast computer screens dominating her secret lab. She analysed the data from her latest experiment, seeing if any of the anomalies had cleared up since the last run of cells. The quality of the alien tissue Chett required for its ship was affected by so many different variables it seemed impossible to grow healthy, viable cells. If she compensated for one problem, yet another genetic deformity would arise. Haruka closed her eyes as her vision blurred and the figures on-screen swirled into a mess of backlit numbers. Without learning how to successfully replicate cells, she wouldn't be able to grow the components required to fix Chett's bioship. And if she wasn't able to fix the ship, she would never be rid of the vile creature.

"Now, now," the voice in her head rang out. "Play nice, Haruka-dear."

The too-familiar jolt of pain thrust itself through Haruka's abdomen like a jagged, rusted spike; she dragged her nails along the computer controls.

"Leave me alone!" she said, trying to shake off the pain, "I can't work like this!"

The little creature writhed inside her, feeling like it was performing figure-of-eights inside her stomach.

"I can't leave you to your own devices. If I do, your mind wanders and you start plotting against that freakish half-sister you hate so much."

An image of the turtle that had once been her father's pet, but was now a freakish offshoot of Haruka's own mutated DNA flashed through her mind. She shuddered.

"If you just gave me the technology you say you have that will let me find her I could be done with it once and for all!"

Haruka slammed her fists on the keyboard. The screens flickered; one died.

"And if I did that, I'm sure your 'hospitality' towards me would soon run out. No, no, dear Haruka. I need you just where I need you: at my mercy!"

This time Haruka toppled from the chair as she doubled up, shrieking in pain. The pulsing, tooth-wrenching pain in her side seemed to travel out on all of her verves, tingling to her fingers and toes. When the pain subsided she caught her reflection on the surface of one shimmering wall surface. Her once beautiful face was sunken, her eyes mere black smudges in a moon pale face. She looked every one of her forty-five years, even more. She reached up with a trembling hand to grab at her pendant, but then remembered – it was gone. She dug her nails into her palms so hard she was sure they would break her skin.

"I will kill those abominations – all of them! Only then will my sin be forgiven. Father –"

Her breath caught in her throat as another spasm of pain wracked her skinny frame. It was only relieved when the cool hand of unconsciousness passed over her eyes, and all was dark.

Dressed in matching sunglasses and black gloves, with walkie-talkies slung on their belts, Leonardo and Raphael surveyed the gathering crowd with identical expressions of curiosity and contempt. They stood on either side of the front entrance to UgBugs, illuminated by the bright neon sign shining from above in the evening gloom. A tacky velvet chain rope was strung across the door and was attempting to keep the queuing punters in check.

"This place is really popular," Leonardo said.

"Pfft," Raphael said, looking over the rims of his glasses. "Yeah, popular with a bunch of druggies, boozers, thugs – the very cream of society."

"I get the feeling that most of these mutants don't have much choice," Leo said.

He squeezed his eyes shut and coloured as yet another pair of breasts was flashed at them from the waiting crowd. It had been happening all evening.

"I think it's either stay here in this…" Leo continued as the mutant blew him a kiss, "…interesting place, or leave MuTo for the human world to be imprisoned, or even killed."

"Yeah, that might be," Raph said, rolling his eyes, "but I don't see why they have ta be so outta control." He carefully avoided the incredulous look on his brother's face – Raphael, criticising others for being out of control? "An' anyway, I don't see why we have ta do this job. Why should we work for Madame Bondage? Shouldn't we be out lookin' for a way to get home to Mona? To Mei?"

Leo folded his arms a little tighter and glanced past his brother's sunglasses.

"We have no idea how to survive in this world, Raph. We know our New York and the people in it. But here… It looks the same in some ways, but it isn't our home. Much as it pains me, I think we need to sit on our hands for the moment and wait for Desdemona to get us some information – and you know how much I want to get home."

"I hate this waiting," Raph growled, leaning heavily against the door behind him.

The crowd winding through the rope barriers was growing thicker and a heavy smell of perfume and marijuana filled the air. The sky was clear and the many voices were coming together in an anticipatory cacophony.

"I still don't like having to work for that broad," Raph said at length, straightening up again. "We ain't doormen, we're trained ninjas!"

"Would you rather have Don's job being Desdemona's new 'bodyguard' or Mikey's working as Cassio's 'assistant'?"

Raphael's silence spoke volumes. Leo shook his head and checked the time on his walkie-talkie.

"Okay, it's show time," he said.

Raphael reached forward to unclip the chain barring entry, and slowly the crowd began to pile into the darkened club.

Donatello leaned against the doorframe with a smirk twisting his face.

"Enjoying yourself?"

Michelangelo's head snapped to the left. The look of sheer horror and embarrassment on the turtle's face was priceless. Mike was kneeling on the floor, his face and shoulders covered in glitter, a long, blond 'up-do' wig adorning his bald head.

"Uhh –"

"Don't move!" Cassio snapped.

The small turtle was busy applying hair spray and glitter to the wig and used his free hand to jerk Mike's head back to its original position – which was right in front of Cassio's crotch.

"Do you need something, dude?" Mike asked through gritted teeth.

"No, no, I was just passing by. I thought I'd say good luck to Cassio before he goes on."

Cassio threw Don a charming smile, blinking eyes now adorned with makeup and fake eyelashes.

"Thanks, doll," he said. "Mike is just helping me with my final preparations. It's nice to be able to see the back of my wig for once! I still haven't managed to track down a dummy head.

Too many comments formed in Donatello's mind about Mike and a 'dummy head', but he managed to keep his tongue in check. His brother seemed to be genuinely terrified.

"Well, good luck!" Don sad, waving farewell to the unusual pair.

He wasn't quite sure who would need it more.

Don headed back towards the kitchen area where he had left his 'charge'. He had been surprised that of the four of them, Desdemona had picked him as her 'bodyguard' – surely Raph's overtly muscular build or Leo's intimidating weaponry would have been better for show? Desdemona had flatly said no. Raph and Leo – and Mike, though he was never an option as he had been pinched by Cassio (Don chuckled at the images that brought up) – were both shorter than Desdemona, and that wouldn't make a good impression. So Donatello's extra few inches were what Des wanted – Don paused in his tracks momentarily to wince at the avenues his own thoughts brought him down.

He walked into the kitchen behind the main bar. It was nothing more than a glorified dishwasher, with crates of glasses being carted in an out by surly mutant employees. Des had fixed herself a drink and nodded at him when he entered, dodging a new load of clean pint glasses.

"Find your brother?" she asked.

"Yes. I think he's feeling a little…intimidated."

Des necked her drink and set down the glass; immediately it was picked up by someone and added to a large industrial dishwasher. The smell of the machines processing loads was stagnant; Don tried not to scrunch up his beak. Des lit another cigarette in the moist air.

"Yeah," she said around it, "Cass'll do that. He's a good kid, but he doesn't know what's too much or how to stop. He'll calm down. At the moment he's like a puppy humping a slipper: eager at first, but soon he'll realise it's going nowhere."

Don tried to keep his face straight, but Des grinned at him – it was a strange expression, so much softer from her normal scowl, but it was soon gone. She crossed her arms and stared at him. Smoke rose in tendrils around her black lace-gloved fingers. For the evening performance she had donned some kind of long, ruffle-skirted lingerie – the name totally escaped Don, for his knowledge of such things was less than limited – with attached garters, black lace stockings and a pair of red stilettos. Her long nails were painted a shimmering, matching shade and a black hat complete with a short veil and feather embellishment finished off the outfit. She was wearing her usual red makeup, but had added a beauty mark on her left cheek. Her hair seemed longer and was swept up under the hat. She was a lush oasis in the swirling, steamy air.

"So, you know the plan?"

Don was shaken from his inventory of her appearance and nodded.

"Yes," he said. He could have sworn she smiled again and shifted her hips a little closer to him. "Once the crowd's under control we walk out. I stand close to you and look as intimidating as possible."

Des nodded and blew a ring of smoke; her lips came together in a delicious pout. Don coughed and glanced around the room; none of the workers seemed to be paying them any attention.

"With those muscles it won't be hard," she said, looking him up and down.

Don ignored the heat of his blush.

"Once you're done with your introductions I help you down from the stage and to our seats in the front row."

"Try and look as protective of me as possible," Des said, then took another drag of her cigarette. "I want to cut down my 'butch' image, and being on the arm of a handsome young fellow turtle will help that along." When Don's eyes boggled, she laughed sharply. "What? Did you think all I wanted you for was to be a 'bodyguard' when I don't really need one? No, not only are you the tallest but you're also the most attractive one of the bunch, just the right combination of brawn, sensitivity and boy-next-door innocence. Frankly I'm surprised Cassio didn't set his sights on i_you_/i."

Don tried to speak but his throat was suddenly dry and his voice cracked. He coughed and tried again.

"I'm not sure I'm okay with all this," he said. "It was one thing being a body guard, but…"

Desdemona stared blankly at him for several moments.

"I'm a prostitute, not a rapist," she said. "It's only for show. Behind closed doors you can do whatever you want."

She looked away abruptly, her expression strange – hurt? Don tried to speak again but this time he had no words to say, just like with Leo earlier. Where were his words going?

"Come on," Des said, extinguishing her butt in a nearby sink. "It's show time."


	11. Chapter 11

The show had been sensational. Cassio, dolled up to the nines as 'Cassi Candi', had leapt, danced, strutted and strode across the makeshift stage, belting out show tune after show tune, interspersed with bouts of side-splitting comedy. 'She' had picked on some of the members of the front row, tastefully avoiding Des and Don, every comment laden with racy innuendo. The finale had been a belting rendition of the song _Cabaret_, and despite having little interest in musical theatre, Donatello had found himself enjoying every moment.

At one point he sneaked a glance over at Desdemona, who was smiling broadly. After doing some quick calculations, Don wasn't surprised that she was happy. The room was absolutely groaning with patrons, taking up every seat and squeezed into every corner. There were even a few hanging from the walls at the very back, humans and mutants alike. If there were around three hundred people – a conservative guess – who had paid ten dollars entry each… That was $3000, not including the drinks and marijuana. And of course, there would be no tax to pay – why pay tax to a government that refused to recognise your existence? Yes, Desdemona had a lot to smile about.

The smell of marijuana was the only thing keeping the stench of unwashed bodies at bay. The room was roasting as the mutants pressed together under the glare of the spotlights, and apparently the clientele were not the most hygienic under normal circumstances. When the show had ended he was glad that Desdemona had stood, and they exited quickly to leave Cassio to bask in the glory of his fans. They walked into the back stairs where they had had their first confrontation and Des lit another cigarette, poised carefully in a long black holder.

"Thanks for escorting me," she said. "Did you enjoy the show?" she asked with one eye-ridge raised.

"Actually, I did," Don said. "Cassio sure is…something."

"My little money-spinner," Des said. "I advise you to stay and enjoy the evening with your brothers. When was the last time you had a genuine night on the town?"

Don crossed his arms.

"Never, actually. There aren't many mutant-friendly theatres or nightclubs where we're from."

Des sucked on the long holder and shrugged her shoulders.

"There should always room for new experiences. Anyway, I have to go. I have someone waiting for me upstairs." She looked at him intensely. "I might have something for you later."

She disappeared up the stairs, her high stilettos clicking rhythmically on the concrete stairs. Suddenly the magic was gone. She wasn't some kind of demure consort whom he had accompanied to a grand social event. She was a whore, and after seeing a raunchy burlesque performance she was off to service another client. Don's shoulders sagged and he shook his head. All he wanted was to go home. He scuffed the ground with his toes before heading backstage and towards Cassio's dressing room. With luck, Mike would still be there; Don needed his brother's enthusiasm to lift him from his gloom. It didn't take long before Don reached the room; he walked in.

"What the – Mikey?"

Immediately, Don doubled over and guffawed. Michelangelo was standing in from of a floor length mirror with a long red wig on his head and holding a sparkling ball gown up against his plastron. On seeing Don he immediately gave one of his patented screams and threw the dress behind his shell.

"Dude, what the hell? Haven't you heard of knocking?"

Donatello's eyes streamed with tears as he leaned against the door frame, his chest heaving as his laughs bellowed loudly.

"Oh Mike," he said, gasping for air, "I'm sorry, but that was just what I needed."

Mike's scowl gradually faded into a sheepish grin as Don straightened up and wiped off his face.

"Oh, man," Don said. "I am sorry Mike, it was just so funny."

Mike grinned wider and glanced at himself in the mirror again.

"Yeah. This guy just has so many wigs and outfits. I couldn't help it!"

Dom glanced around the dressing room again as he composed himself. The actual masonry of the room was falling apart. The walls were cracking and a very poor attempt had been made at a repair on the ceiling, but the contents of the room were striking. Boxes, bags and rails of clothes and shoes of every colour and material were lined up. There were belts and scarves hanging from hooks, as well as some raunchier items. Everything had been altered to fit the male turtle's frame and to accommodate his shell. It was like a mutant transvestite's dream – which, Donatello realised, was exactly what it was.

"This sure is an Aladdin's cave," he said.

The long bar lights hanging from the ceiling buzzed and cast an artificial glow over everything; all of the pieces of glitter caught the light and winked. Michelangelo placed the wig in an empty box, presumably the one he had found it in, and scratched at his scalp.

"So, what did you mean by 'you needed it', dude?"

Don immediately schooled his emotions and let as nonchalant an expression come across his face.

"Oh, nothing, Mike," he said lightly. "I was just glad to get away from the crowd. It was pretty claustrophobic, and the smell of weed was just…too much."

Mike raised one eye ridge in a strange parallel with Desdemona's expression earlier, but Don wouldn't give in. Judging by the look on Mikey's face, he wasn't about to either. Don sighed and clapped his brother on the shoulder.

"C'mon," he said. "Let's go find Leo and Raph. I'm sure they'll have some stories to tell from tonight."

Mona pulled her belt tightly across her abdomen and scowled. The once loose-fitting band of leather was now struggling to clip together. Mona poked her belly and scowled deeper. She was definitely getting fatter. She sighed and wrapped her arms around herself. Everything was going wrong.

It had been days since Raphael and the others had apparently disappeared off the face of the earth. Every night since Mona had snuggled up in a cold, empty bed. She would have berated her own weakness for all the tears she had shed into her Raph-scented pillow if it wasn't for the fact that her heart was completely broken, as well as feeling very sick every day. Of course, she would never admit it to Raph, and to Splinter and Mei she was a pillar of strength. The mother-to-be was too worried about her children and their future to do much else, and Master Splinter spent the majority of his time in meditation trying to contact his sons. It meant that the day to day running of the lair had largely fallen to Mona alone. She tightened her arms and felt tears bead under her eyelashes. She couldn't lose face in front of the others, but the façade was beginning to crack.

She let her arms drop and straightened her back, her chin tilted upwards. I_Enough of this/i_. It was time to suck it up. Mona brushed her short hair back from her face and attempted to adjust her belt again. Tonight she was getting a respite from the housework and hopefully from her worries with a visit to April's for a girl's night. Mei had been invited, but no amount of cajoling could convince her to leave the lair and her eggs. So it would just be April, Mona and some movies, popcorn – and Ben & Jerry, of course. Mona gathered up her few belongings and stowed them in the pockets of her belt, before giving one last glance at the painfully empty bed, and stepped out of her bedroom and on her way.

It was after midnight before the turtles returned to their temporary home. Together the four brothers had escaped to the rooftops of the city, but none of them had anything in particular to say. Don had sensed an intense sadness flow through them all as they had hopped the rooftops, making it all the way out to stare at the Statue of Liberty, bathed silver in the moonlight. However, they weren't their rooftops; it wasn't their Lady Liberty. There seemed to be an unspoken agreement that it was just too much to bear, for they all made to return at the same time.

They returned to the apartment via the roof. There was light and voices coming from the main living area, and Michelangelo immediately slunk up to the door, which was only ajar by a few centimetres. He pressed his eye up to the crack and beckoned for the others to join him. Inside, Desdemona was pacing up and down the room in bare feet. Othello was sitting on the battered couch with his hands behind his head.

"We need to find a way to get into that building," Desdemona said. "This makes it even more important."

"I agree," Othello said, his voice a soft, gravelly rumble. "She's up to something, and this appearance of these turtles from 'another dimension' by her hand makes her all the more dangerous. What exactly is she up to? How did she do it?"

Desdemona grunted and reached for her head; Mike clapped a hand over his mouth to muffle his squeak of surprise as the female turtle buried her fingers in her hair and yanked the whole lot off in one go and threw it on the floor.

"A wig?" Mike whispered, although when he thought back to Cassio's dressing room he wasn't so surprised.

Don shrugged and placed one finger against his lips in a signal for quiet, and the four returned their attention back to the pair inside the living room. The similarity between Desdemona and Othello was even more striking now that Des was bald. Their skin and eyes were identical, and their facial structure was very similar, with minimal differences likely due to their opposite genders. Othello's chin was stronger, whereas Desdemona's cheekbones were more prominent. The fact that the Michio Haruka woman had managed to create a clone of the opposite sex was fascinating, as far as Don was concerned. But, of course, it was hardly the most unusual thing the turtles had ever encountered.

"I don't know how she's done what she's done," Des continued, "but it makes it even more vital that we find her and we take her down."

"Getting to her isn't going to be easy, but maybe with these ninja we'll have a better chance. I saw two of them sparring, the orange one and the blue one. They're amazing."

"Michelangelo and Leonardo," Desdemona said. "Have some courtesy and learn their names. The 'red one' is Raphael and the 'purple one' is –"

"Donatello," Othello cut in, throwing his sister a significant look that went completely over Mike's head, but caused Leo and Raph to cast their own 'significant' looks at Don. "I know that one."

Don's face screwed up in confusion and he did his best to ignore his brothers. Desdemona cast a warning glance at Othello.

"Anyway," he said, evidently sensing the signal to back off, "I wonder if they've returned yet. We need to update them on what's happening."

"Go and find them for me, will you, sweetie?"

Othello's face softened into a smile for the first time since the turtles had met him, and Desdemona reached out to pat her clone's cheek before Othello made for the doorway.

"Ninja vanish!" Mike whispered.

The brothers were gone before Othello could place a gloved hand on the door handle and go off in search of them.


	12. Chapter 12

Donatello perched on the arm of Leonardo's armchair as the little group assembled in the living area. Othello had gathered them from their respective rooms, his face stony and his voice cold. Don had noticed that when the tall turtle – and he was tall, towering over the others at six feet – had grasped the door handle of his room, his fingers shook violently. Othello had quickly wrenched his hands behind his back when he saw Don's quizzical look. It was unreal how identical Othello and his sister-clone really were. However, where Desdemona's eyes sparkled, Othello's were dull and blank. Des stood tall and confident; Othello's shoulders slumped and his heavy boots dragged on the hard floors as he had led the turtles to the living room. He stood behind Des and briefly laid a hand on her shoulder. At Desdemona's feet was the big Alsatian dog they had met on the first day. Don and Leo exchanged a curious look; they hadn't seen it since.

Desdemona gently petted the dog's head, her painted nails glinting in the soft lamp light. The atmosphere in the room was tense. Raphael sat in a hard-backed chair, his arms folded over this carapace and giving off the aura of a coiled spring. His face was a picture of thunder. Michelangelo slumped in a patchwork armchair, looking unusually deflated. Leo sat on the edge of the chair with his hands carefully folded in his lap. Don just about stopped himself from sighing, and waited for someone to speak. At length, someone did.

"Nym here has been out doing surveillance at the MedTechCorp building over the past few days," Des said, sliding her fingers through the cashmere soft fur atop the dog's head.

"We have a few informants inside," Nym said. "They're mostly loyal to Michio Hiraku after all these years. They don't like what Haruka's been doing, and they're certain that she killed him. The others are paid enough money to know when to keep their ears and eyes open and their mouths shut."

Don watched as they dog talked, its long jaws moving up and down, forming words and sounds that a dog should never be able to make. It was fascinating and baffling, but even Don's natural curiosity was dampened by circumstance.

"What we've been able to confirm so far," Nym continued, standing up to pace around the room, "is the location of Michio's secret lab. So far the informants haven't been able to gain access."

Desdemona uncrossed her legs and leaned forward. Her bangs fell across her eyes.

"That's where I'm hoping you guys can come in," she said. "As my brother reminded me, you are ninja. I assume that means you're all masters of stealth."

"Damn straight," Raphael said. "So you need us to go in and scope the place out."

"Right," Des said. "If we can get you in and find a way to disable the door, we can get access to whatever it was that brought you here, and hopefully we can send you home."

"Well, Donnie here is the turtle you need for that job," Mike said, attempting to inject enthusiasm into the conversation. "There's no door he can't figure out!"

Des looked at Don, her expression almost cold, before she nodded.

"Good. We'll do our best to gather up anything you need: tools, disguises, whatever."

Don rubbed his chin, his brows coming together in contemplation.

"Ideally I'll need some blueprints for the door mechanism, and realistically some plans for the transporting technology."

Nym shook his head and turned to face Don.

"The plans for the door may be possible, I don't think we can do any more than that," he said. "Our spies cannot access the room, and there's a whole section of the mainframe that's completely blocked off by firewalls and who knows what else. Anything to do with the transporter technology is probably hidden deep down where only Michio can find it."

Leonardo stood up and paced over to the large window nearby. The darkness of the night framed him in blackness interspersed with golden flecks of streetlamps are car lights.

"We're only going to get one shot at this," he said quietly. "If we try and we fail, from what we've heard about her I'm sure this Michio will hype up security levels so high that even we won't be able to get in." He turned abruptly on one heel and looked at Des. "I assume you'll want us to bring you along."

"That's part of the deal," Des said. "I help get you home, you help me kill that bitch."

"We'll get you in," Leo said, holding up one hand, "but the killing is up to you. we can't be a part of that."

Desdemona nodded.

"Understood," she said, but then glared at the group with her chin tilted up. "She killed my father; she deserves to die. Wouldn't you all do the same?"

Leo didn't answer but held her gaze. Raphael stood up abruptly.

"It doesn't matter what we would do," he said. "An' anyway, if all this dog and your 'informants' have told us is stuff that we already knew – that this crazy lady has a secret lab – then we don't even need ya!" He punctuated his sentence with a sharp poke towards Desdemona's face.

Nym turned to face Raph down, growling through twin rows of sharp yellowed teeth.

"Nym, no!" Des said, snapping her fingers.

The dog growled at Raphael again, but backed down and slunk off into a corner. His eyes glinted through the dimness. Desdemona looked coolly at Raphael and spread her hands in the air.

"Go ahead," she said. "Do you remember how you got out of the building? Could you get back in that way without being noticed? Do you think your brother could deactivate the door blindly? Would you go in unprepared and blow your chance? Or will you use everything at your disposal to give yourselves the best opportunity? If you leave now, you'll lose my protection."

Don winced. He could practically see the rage exploding across Raphael's brain.

"Your protection? We don't need your 'protection', lady," he said, his face lined with fury. "We can survive just fine on our own; we've lived for twenty-two goddamned years on our own. We _don't_. _Need_. _You_!"

Desdemona wrenched herself to her feet and thrust one long-nailed finger at the door.

"Then get out!" she said. "Get the hell off my property."

Othello laid one shaking hand on his sister's shoulder but she shrugged it off with a glare. At that, he looked crushed.

"You won't find any kindness out there," Des continued, squaring off against Raphael. Even in bare feet she still had a few inches in height over him. Raph laughed at her attempted toughness. "You might be ninja, but that won't protect you when some crack head junkie blows your head off. It won't get you food or a place to stay, and it damn well won't protect you from the human anti-mutant laws and their 'euthanasia' program. They have snipers on rooftops that pick mutants off one by one if they stray outside the ghetto. So go ahead! See how long you last!"

The pair looked set to jump at one another, but Leonardo and Donatello stepped between them at the same time.

"Raph, no," Leo said, grabbing his brother's shoulders. Raph wrenched himself away in disgust. "Our best chance of getting home, of getting back to Mona, and Mei and Father, is to use everything we have at our disposal. We're safe here – relatively speaking. We can put all our efforts towards getting home; we don't need to worry about survival."

Raph said nothing; Don looked at him with his palms held open.

"I'll need plans, Raph," he said. "If we only get one chance at this I want to be as prepared as possible. Sure I could figure it out on my own, but that could take time, and I doubt we'll have a lot of that."

Raph grunted and stomped away from them. Don didn't even feel like laughing at the childish behaviour. Mike still remained silent; usually he would have been all over Raph for such a display. However, he did look at Leonardo with pleading eyes, willing his brother to say something to sort this mess out.

"We'd like to stay," Leo said to Desdemona. "If you're still willing to let us." Don could just imagine the sidelong glance Leo wanted to give Raph. "We need to use whatever resources we can get our hands on to get home to our family, and if we only get one chance we have to make it count."

"Wise," Des said, reigning in her temper. She looked at Don. "We'll get you're your blueprints."

Without another word she strode out of the room. Nym immediately jumped up from the corner and followed her. Othello glanced around the four brothers, his whole expression suddenly heavily leaden with sorrow, before he left too, leaning on the furniture. The tension in the room was replaced by a bitter coldness.

"Nice going, Raph," Mike said at length.

"Shut up, Mikey," Raph spat back. "I'm sick of that broad walkin' around as if she's the big dick and we're just scum."

"Her attitude may leave a lot to be desired," Leo said, tiptoeing carefully through his words, "but we are essentially guests here. I want to get home as much as you do, but we need to make sure we know what we're doing before we act. Especially if we only get one shot. If we blow it, we may never get home."

Raphael grunted his reply and abruptly left the room; a sure sign that he knew Leo was right but wouldn't admit it. Leo shook his head and Don sighed again. He stared out across the cityscape, its familiarity suddenly all the more painful.

It had been five days, three hours and seven minutes since Leonardo had last left the lair. Mei could tell that without even looking at a clock. She sat on the kitchen chair she had dragged into the Greenhouse and watched her three eggs as they nestled in their special incubators. Little lights on the control monitor blinked and the climate controls whirred softly as the temperature was regulated. Mei wouldn't cry, for that would be useless. But she curled her fingers tightly around the edge of the chair until her knuckles went pale. She was retreating more and more into the Greenhouse, neglecting everything else. With Leonardo gone, she simply wanted to spend all her time with her eggs. One day she might leave, and when she came back they would simply be gone, disappeared into thin air, just like Leo.

It would never happen of course. But then, Leo should never have disappeared either. Mei sighed and shifted in the chair. She knew she was being selfish. She was leaving the burden of day-to-day living to Mona, who was looking greener than usual these days. Mei knew she should get up, wash her face and try to go on as normal, but she couldn't. She simply gripped the edge of the chair even more tightly, and watched the little eggs basking in the incubator's light.


	13. Chapter 13

**13.**

The pot roast had been in the oven for more than long enough. Donning her oven mitts, April O'Neil lifted it up onto the corkboard she had set out earlier, wincing at the heat and steam that assaulted her face. On inspection the roast wasn't as burned as she had anticipated, though the onions were a little too close to 'charred' than she usually tolerated. She shook her head and reached for the plates. Where on earth was Mona? Her friend had been becoming increasingly distracted over the past few weeks, and who could blame her? She couldn't imagine what she would do if Casey disappeared. It was hard enough when he went off on his vigilante business, but at least she knew that he was in the city somewhere. In fact, that's where he was now. But to have him apparently fall into oblivion… April shuddered. It wasn't worth thinking about.

Just as she was about to serve herself some pot roast – there was no sense in waiting any longer – she heard a knock at the fire escape door. She shook her head.

"Finally!"

She pulled off her mitts and threw them on the counter before going to answer the knock. When she opened it the sarcastic remark about Mona being on time as usual melted away. April's brow furrowed as she took in the sight of her friend. The green lizard lady was looking haggard and bloated. Dark circles hung under her eyes and her brown hair was fuzzy and unruly.

"Oh my God, Mona, were you attacked on the way over here?"

Mona stared at April with a deadpan expression and leaned against the door frame.

"Oh, gee, thanks," she said. "That makes me feel i_real/i_ good."

April stepped aside to usher her friend in. She closed the door as Mona flopped down onto the couch and cradled her head in her hands.

"Mona, what's wrong?" April asked.

"Oh, Ape," Mona said, curling her webbed toes into the soft carpet, "I'm just falling apart."

April felt her heart ache with compassion. She and Mona had been meeting regularly over the past few weeks as normal and the strain had been beginning to show, but it had never been as bad as this. April knelt in front of Mona and pried the mutant's hands away from her head to hold them gently.

"I'm so sorry, Mona," she said. "I don't know what to do to try and make things better."

Mona shook her head and blinked back tears.

"Neither do I," she said. "I miss him so much, but I could deal with it a whole lot better if I didn't feel so damn sick all the time!"

April sat back on her haunches.

"You're i_still/i_ feeling sick? When did this start?"

Mona wrapped her arms around her waist and looked at the floor, mumbling.

"What was that?" April asked.

Mona sighed and looked up again.

"I said, 'since about a week before Raph disappeared'."

"_What_?" April asked. She did a quick calculation. "That's at least three weeks!"

"I know," Mona groaned. "I don't know what's wrong. Normally I would go to Don, but that's not exactly possible at the moment."

April got up to sit beside her friend and rubbed her back.

"Well, I just took the pot roast out of the oven, so if you're feeling okay we can have something to eat and talk things through."

Mona wiped her face and tried to smile.

"I've been craving pot roast," she said. "God only knows why. I'd love some, though really I should just have a salad or something light. Comfort eating is ruining my waistline!"

April rubbed Mona's back again and frowned as a strange thought crossed her mind. But no, it couldn't be… Surely it was impossible, wasn't it? She shook the thoughts off and clapped her hands on her thighs.

"Well, now that you're here we should eat. No sense in letting the food go cold!"

Mona composed herself and got to her feet.

"Okay, sounds like a plan."

Donatello carefully replaced the cover of the fuse box and wrapped the screwdriver back up in the fabric tool bag. Over the past few weeks he had been occupying his time by tinkering with the apartment's heating and electrical systems. The wiring was so old and outdated that Don would have relished the idea of ripping out huge sections and start over. As it stood, however, all he could do was repair the more obvious and dangerous parts and hope for the best.

It was strangely comforting when he held the old soldering iron and pliers in his hands. It reminded him of ten years before when he had already been making improvements to the lair. Of course, that had been their original home. Since then it had been ruined by the Shredder's Mouser robots; then their second home in the sewers had been destroyed too. Finally they had set up shop in the abandoned pumping station, where he should have been now, making improvements for the arrival of Leo and Mei's babies. Don turned the battered pliers over in his calloused hands, the metal glinting in the dim light of an old bulb. If he closed his eyes he could almost imagine himself back home, tinkering in his workshop or making some adjustment or another. But the walls of his imagined home were thin, and within a few minutes they were blown down by the winds of reality. He gathered together his tools and sighed, before walking back through the apartment and into the kitchen.

The tools clattered to the floor and Don rushed across to the fallen mutant on the floor.

"Othello?"

The turtle was lying spread-eagled on in patched and worn linoleum. His eyelids were fluttering and his fingers were grasping weakly in thin air. Don slapped the side of Othello's cheek lightly; his yellow eyes rolled forwards again.

"Hey, guy," Don said. "What happened?"

Othello struggled to rise and Don helped him to sit up, supporting his shell and placing one hand on his forearm. Othello looked visibly failed, his collar bones picked out in sharp contrast from his dark green skin and his cheeks hollowed.

"I fell," Othello said.

He tried to pull away from Don but flopped back into his arms.

"Hey, don't try to get up," Don said. "Just rest. Are you feeling lightheaded?"

"Yes," Othello said. "I wanted a snack to make me feel better and when I reached up I felt dizzy and fell down. I…I feel really weak."

"Has this happened before?" Don's 'doctor hat' was firmly in place.

Othello deflated even further and Don found himself supporting practically all his weight.

"Yes… My father told me that because I'm cloned, I can't metabolise food very well. I get weak. I find it hard to keep weight on."

Don nodded.

"I'm not surprised at that. You're probably hypoglycaemic. Let's get you into a chair and get something to bring your blood sugars back up again."

Othello tried to fight it, but Don easily lifted him into a nearby kitchen chair. He winced as he thought about how it felt like he was only lifting an empty shell. He rummaged in the kitchen cupboards and pulled out some crackers and sweet peanut butter. As he placed them on the table and reached for a knife he saw Othello bury his face in his hands. His shoulders began to shake and Don frowned.

"It's not so bad," he said. "It's an easy-to-control condition. I can help you manage it if you want."

Othello stood up abruptly, his chair screeching mightily on the floor.

"You don't understand!"

He made as if to run from the room, but only Don's ninja-quick reflexes saved him from hitting the floor face-first.

"Maybe I don't," Don said, sitting the turtle back down, "but I do have an understanding of some medical matters. And from what you've told me your blood sugar is low and you need to eat something. That's an order."

Don clapped a hand on the lip of Othello's shell; the tall turtle's shoulders slumped and he sighed.

"Okay."

Satisfied, Don went back to spreading peanut butter on the crackers. He spun around quickly as his heightened senses picked up a shadow on the periphery. However, when he looked there was nothing there apart from the half-closed door. He passed Othello the crackers and nabbed one for himself.

"Want some juice?"

"Yeah, sure."

Don picked out two of the less spotted glasses and poured some orange juice for both of them. Othello fiddled with the crackers, but ate them and drank the juice after receiving a stern glare from Don. He rolled the empty glass around in his hands.

"I don't understand you," Othello said.

Don raised an eyeridge and frowned.

"Huh?"

Othello slid the glass away and drummed his fingers on the table.

"You're just…nice," he said. "All of you are. You're all just…nice people, like a real family."

Don shook his head and chuckled.

"We're not always nice, and we certainly don't always get along. Sometimes it can be like a bear pit at home!" Don stopped, a wistful look crossing his face momentarily. He shook it off. "I think we're all being on our best behaviour at the moment because we're guests, but the strain is starting to show. Raphael almost threw Mike out of a window yesterday!"

"What I mean is," Othello said, shaking his head, "you're just like a real family. Yes you fight, but you're like…brothers together, united." Othello sat back, his face a picture of dejection. "We're not really a family, Cass and Des and I. We used to be. We had nothing, we lived in abandoned buildings and ate scraps from dumpsters, but we were all together with Father, and we were happy. But when Dad died we lost what little we had. He took care of us. Des started prostituting herself, and then I did, and something just…broke. She used to be so happy. She loved life, as poor as we were. But, not any more. Sometimes I think she would rather be dead. Sometimes I think I would."

Othello's face reddened quickly as if he had just realised what he was saying. He seemed to fold in on himself in shame. Don spread his hands wide and tried to smile encouragingly.

"It's okay, I don't judge," he said. "Things weren't easy for us when we were growing up either. Though we never had to do anything that drastic."

Othello reached across the table to snag a cracker and nibbled at it.

"I would do anything to escape from here – _anything_. But we can't even leave this ghetto. They literally have snipers positioned on rooftops near the fences. Any mutant that tries to escape…" Othello mimed shooting Don in the head. "Boom. Gone."

Don's face crumpled with disgust and sympathy. He shook his head.

"I can't say I'm totally surprised," he said. "I've seen the levels that some people will descend to."

Othello reached up to wipe one eye and glanced at the red smudge of makeup that came away on his fingertip. He laughed. His tone was cold.

"Des's idea," he said. "We set ourselves up as mutant child savages, like a kind of untamed half-human beast. We wore the makeup like tribal symbols. It just stuck. I can't imagine not wearing it now.

"It binds you together, like our shared ninja heritage does," Don said. "It's a commonality all four of us share, even when we seem to unique from each other."

Othello snorted and wiped his finger on the table.

"I'm not unique. I'm just a faulty copy of Desdemona, created as a joke. Where she's strong, I'm weak. Where she's confident, I'm shy. Where she's talented, I'm not."

"But where she's closed, you're open," Don said.

Othello looked at him, curiosity painted on his face like the red makeup.

"We've been here for weeks," Don said, "and for all the time I've spent with her as her 'bodyguard' I've learned nothing about her. She's cold, and very closed off/ But you – well, we've barely spent any time together, but just today I've learned more about you than I have about her."

Othello's face softened, the worry falling away from his features. He shook his head.

"I've never met anyone like you," he said. "Like I said, you're nice. There aren't many nice people here."

Don chuckled.

"I'm not always."

"I think that's why Des likes you," Othello said.

Don barked out a laugh.

"Likes me? She glares at me as if I'm something gross she's just stepped in!"

Othello shook his head again and reached across to take Don's hand. Don froze.

"I know she likes you, because I like you. We share all the same traits, wants, hopes…desires." He let go of Don's hand and retreated back. "She may be cold on the outside, but that's just because she's been frozen by circumstance. She felt like she had to look after us after Father died because she's the oldest – she was five when I was cloned so technically I'm the youngest. Des has done a lot of things that go against her nature. I have, too, but I get morose – in case you hadn't noticed. Des has closed down. She's a shadow of the big sister I used to know.

Don looked at the tabletop thoughtfully and shook his head.

"You're certainly a lot more eloquent than she is."

"Des is…less than tactful. But I think it's because she worries about looking or saying something stupid. She thinks she has to be strong, like a mob boss. But it rankles on her because she can't read or write and she thinks that males her stupid –" Othello clamped his mouth shut abruptly. "Oops."

"She can't read or write?" Don asked.

"No, she can't. But don't tell her I let it slip. She's very touchy about it. No matter what Father did, he could never teach her, no matter how hard she tried."

"I'll keep my trap shut," Don said. "I'm a ninja; secrets are my speciality."

Othello chuckled softly, the sound almost musical.

"If only…" he said. At Don's questioning look he waved a hand. "Never mind. I'm feeling a lot better now I've had something to eat, and I guess because I've been able to let off some steam, too."

"No problem." Don said. "If you ever need anything I'm here. I suggest you go and rest for a while, and maybe eat something more. You look like you've lost weight."

Othello tapped at his plastron and sighed.

"I have. I do a lot."

"Well, I'm going to go find Leo," Don said, rising. "He went out to scope the city earlier."

"I hope he was careful," Othello said.

Don smiled.

"No one is more careful, except maybe Mikey when it comes to his mint condition comic books." The two chuckled. "Will you be okay?" Don asked.

"Yes, thank you."

"Okay. See you later."

With a friendly wave Don turned and exited the kitchen, heading towards Leo's temporary bedroom. As he walked his mind was heavy with new and interesting thoughts.


	14. Chapter 14

**14.**

Haruka worked long into the night. She carefully dropped the specialised alien DNA cells into the rows of petri dishes under the UV lights. Her hand shook as she squeezed the cells out onto their jellied beds. Across the room in the large incubator a huge expanse of alien tissue was already growing. Chett seemed to have taken control of it, and was beginning to shape it into what must have been different components of its bioship. The lab was dark apart from the strips of emergency lighting along the walkways. Haruka set down the pipette and leaned heavily on the workbench. The metal was warm under the light.

It would never stop. She could constantly feel and hear humming travelling from her head down through her whole body, almost as if her whole body was vibrating along with Chett's tissues. The symbiont inside her seemed to be growing, and it positively bulged out from her abdomen. And the voice, the voice was always there. Chett never left her alone.

"And why would I, Haruka-dear? You're such a good little worker. Maybe I'll take you with me when I finally go – or at least that clever little brain of yours."

"Leave me in peace!" Haruka said. "I've perfected the growth process. I'm making your tissues. Soon you'll have enough and you can go back to where you came from and leave me be!"

"Oh, dear, dear Haruka," Chett's voice echoed. "And you will never be free of me." The voice dropped to a whisper. "Never."

Donatello knocked gently on Leo's bedroom door and waited for a response. It wasn't long before he was beckoned in. Leo was sitting in the lotus position, his fingers curled together loosely and a few stubby candles casting a buttery glow over his face.

"Hey, Don," he said, opening his eyes.

"Hi, Leo," Don said.

He sat down on his brother's bed and placed his hands on his lap. Leonardo turned around, now haloed by the candlelight.

"What's up, Don? You look troubled."

"Nothing, Leo," Don said with a sigh. At Leo's stern look, he relented. "Well, everything's wrong, really. I just want to get out of here."

"Me too."

Leo rose and sat down beside Don, leaning forward with his hands clasped and dangling between his thighs.

"It's killing me being away from home," Leo said. "All I think of is Mei alone and worrying about whether we'll ever get back, how she'll cope with raising the kids alone. The kids…" Leo shook his head. "I'm going to be a father, Donnie, a _father_. I can't believe it, and I also can't believe the rotten luck we've had. If it was any other time, it wouldn't be so bad. But right now all I want to do is be home. I'm mostly angry because I'm missing out on preparing for them hatching, the excitement of waiting and getting their rooms ready." He sighed. "It's not fair."

"No, it's not," Don said. "But hopefully we'll be home soon. Did you find anything when you were out earlier today?"

"I had a good look at the MedTechCorp buildings," Leo said. "They're set in a compound with some tight security. We won't have a problem getting in, but I'm worried about the others. We'll have to get some grappling equipment and haul them over the wall. It's about three meters high, so we should be able to do it. We'll need to disable the guards that are patrolling or try and sneak in when they're on the furthest point of their route."

"Have you timed them?" Don asked.

"I've got Nym working on that." Leo chuckled. "At least in a world where mutants are despised, a dog still looks like a dog, no matter whether it can talk or not."

Don chuckled too.

"I guess you're right. That's a strange one."

"Yeah." Leo stood up and paced. "If we can get past the security the next step is to get into the building. Desdemona's mole on the inside has identified a disused air conditioning vent that leads into the access tunnels running through the building. We know where the lab is so it shouldn't be too difficult to find. The next problem is the door. We're close to getting the blueprints; once we do you can figure out what you need to bring to disarm it."

Don nodded and twisted his lips thoughtfully.

"That's fine, Leo, but the main problem will be actually getting the transporter to work. If it's alien technology there's no guarantee I'll be able to figure out how to use the thing."

"I have faith in you, Donnie. You've never let us down before."

Don didn't know whether to feel thankful or resentful. The words were laid on his shoulders with the warmth of a compliment and the weight of a terrible burden.

"I hope I don't this time," he said. "My other worry is, how are Des, Othello and Cassio going to get back out of the building again. If they're caught they'll be killed."

"I know," Leo said, waving one hand over the candles. The flames followed his skin. "It's been on my mind, too. It doesn't feel right. They help us to get home and we leave them to die. Ultimately though, there's nothing we can do. The bargain ends once we hit the transporter. They're in and they can do what they need to do; we go home."

Don stood up abruptly and shook his head.

"It's not right," he said. "We can't leave them to die."

"But what can we do, Don?" Leo asked. "I wish there was something we could do to help them; it doesn't seem very honourable to repay them for their kindness by abandoning them when they're in the most danger, but we need to get home."

Don crossed his arms and dropped his chin. The light cast heavy shadows over his brow.

"Maybe they could come with us."

"Huh?" Leo asked.

"Maybe they could come back to our New York," Don said. "You've seen it here; it's a nightmare. And none of them are happy."

"That's not our responsibility," Leo said. "I know it's harsh, but it's not. Our goal is to get home, and only to get home."

Don shook his head and placed his hands on his hips.

"That's not like you, Leo," he said. "I thought you would have agreed with me."

"Our responsibility is to our family, Donatello," Leo said. "Desdemona and the others have been good to us, but we're fulfilling our end of the bargain by getting them into MedTechCorp. After that, we don't owe them anything more. What if they did come back with us? Where would they stay? What would they do to live?"

Donatello didn't answer right away, and shook his head slowly.

"You've changed, Leonardo. The brother I used to know would have wanted to help, no matter what. He would have wanted to take them away from here, and worry about the details later."

Leo looked as though his next words would have cleaved Donatello in two. His face was lined with sudden fury. But it disappeared as soon as it had appeared, and Leo sat back down on the bed.

"You're right as always, Don," he said. "I know. I don't know what I'm saying. I don't think it would do any harm to ask them if they wanted to come with us. But what makes you think they'll want to come? This place isn't great, but at least they can exist in relative freedom."

"As long as they stay within the ghetto," Don added. "That's no life to live. I was talking to Othello earlier – he's not in great health, apparently. But he's just so…depressed, so unhappy with life. And he told me Desdemona is, too. Apparently she wasn't always so cold."

Leo looked carefully at his brother and nodded.

"You like her, don't you?"

Don took on a deer-in-headlamps look and froze. Leo laughed and patted the bed beside him.

"Come on; tell Big Brother all about it."

Don sat down slowly and folded his hands in his lap.

"I guess I do," he said. "But I don't think I should. I mean, she's a prostitute, Leo. God knows how many people, men and mutants, she's slept with. And she's so abrupt, so rude and just plain aggressive – she shouldn't be my type."

"But she is?" Leo asked.

"I – I think it's because there have been a few occasions where I think I've seen beneath that rough exterior. There's someone nice and kind and warm under all that aggression, I just know it. I mean, she offered to let us stay without hesitation."

"Only after she tried to choke you to death, remember?" Leo asked, though it was with a smile.

"I know," Don said, instinctively touching his throat. "But look at this place. She's created a mecca in this cesspool of despair, a place where people can come and be safe, away from the human threat. She lets people stay here for free."

"And she also encourages people to come and spend huge amounts of money on sex, drink, drugs and gambling."

"I know." Don sighed. "This is why I'm so confused. She treats us like dirt, and yet at the same time she's kept us safe here. She's so closed, and yet all I want to do is get to know the person underneath. And between us there's just a…connection, somehow. I can't explain it."

"I think I can," Leo said. "It's simple: chemical attraction. Like with Mei and I. When you get that feeling you just know that you want that person."

Don put his head in his hands.

"That's exactly what it feels like," he said. "And I hate it. I wish it would go away."

"The only way it will go away is if we leave this place behind," Leo said, "and yet you want to take her with us. So I don't think you really want it to go away."

Don shook his head and was silent for several minutes. Leo waited patiently, before throwing an arm around his brother's shoulders in a rough hug.

"Don, it's normal to want to be with someone else," he said. "I know with our lot in life the chance of a partner has been slim, but look at me and look at Raph: we never thought we'd find anyone and yet we have."

Don snorted but relaxed into the hug.

"At least neither of you has fallen for a 'woman of ill repute'," he said.

"You can't control your heart, Donnie," Leo said.

"I didn't know I had one," Don said.

Leo laughed and clapped Don on the shell.

"Of course you do. Well, if they want to come with us they can," he said. "We'll find somewhere for them. If they don't want to go, at least we know we did everything we could."

Don smiled.

"There's the brother I know," he said.

The two brothers shared in the warmth of each other's company before parting ways. Don disappeared into his own bedroom and retreated to bed, thoughts of blueprints and potential swirling around in his brain.


	15. Chapter 15

**15.**

April paced up and down the floor outside her bathroom with her hands behind her back. This had definitely been the longest two minutes of her life. There was no guarantee that the test would work anyway, but the wait was agonising. She could only imagine what it was like for Mona, staring at that little white stick and waiting for its judgement.

The penny had finally dropped when April had thought hard after her dinner with Mona. It all seemed to fit: the nausea and vomiting, the weight gain, the roller coaster of emotion… It had to be right, but how? When April had gently suggested that her friend might be pregnant Mona had scoffed and said no, no way! But the colour had drained from her face and April had promptly been dispatched to the nearest drug store. Now they waited.

"Oh. My. God!"

April spun on her heel as Mona's shriek echoed within the bathroom. The lizard burst out into the hall and April briefly lamented for her door's hinges.

"What? What?" she asked.

Mona took a deep breath.

"I'm pregnant!"

"Oh my God!"

The two friends stared at each other for several moments before Mona launched herself into April's arms.

"I don't know whether to laugh or cry!" Mona said, sniffing and then chuckling. "This shouldn't be happening! Don said it was impossible."

April hugged her friend tightly and then held her at arm's length.

"I don't know what to say, Mona, other than it's a complete miracle. There's no way it should have happened, and yet here you are!"

"I know! Oh, God, Ape, I'm going to have a baby. What the hell am I going to do? How am I going to tell Raph? How am I going to tell Master Splinter?"

April pulled Mona back in for another hug to calm her friend down.

"Don't worry about it, Mona," she said. "Do you want to wait a while before you go home to break – uh – tell them the good news?"

"No, no," she said. "I think I should go now. Would you come with me?"

"Of course I will," April said, heading to the lounge to grab her purse. "Let's just get it over and done with."

The journey back to their lair seemed to go on and on. No matter how fast Mona and April travelled on the Sewer Sled, they never seemed to get any closer. Eventually they reached the pumping station and Mona parked up. Her hands were trembling on the controls. April smiled encouragingly at her friend, and the two walked in and straight to Master Splinter's quarters.

The room was decorated carefully with oriental wall hangings and antiques that April had sourced for her old friend. The rush matting on the floor had been freshly swept, and Master Splinter sat stoically at his low table, carefully pouring hot water into a clay teapot. At the knock on the paper door, he beckoned for his guests to enter. He nodded at the two women and beckoned for them to sit.

"Welcome," he said. "It is nice to see you again, April."

"You too Master Splinter," she said. "We've got some news for you."

"Oh? Then please tell me."

April prodded Mona in the side. Mona smiled as bravely as she could.

"Well, Master, I just wanted to tell you that…you're going to be a grandfather."

Splinter blinked and folded his pink hands on the table in front of him.

"Forgive me," he said, "but while my age may suggest some memory loss, I must say I am aware of Leonardo and Mei Pei Chi's impending additions to our family."

"No, I didn't mean that," Mei said, her voice stumbling over her tongue.

April sat forward and smiled.

"No, Sensei, what she means is that –"

"_Raph and I _are going to make you a grandfather."

Splinter blinked, and then blinked again. He sat back. Mona closed her eyes tightly and waited for the reaction. She looked up as Splinter let out a throaty chuckle.

"This is wonderful news," he said, "though the circumstances are not ideal considering my wayward sons are still missing. I am happy for you both."

Mona let out the breath she had been holding in and smiled.

"I don't know why I was so nervous about telling you that!" she said.

"It is indeed a surprise," Splinter said, "but a welcome one as the atmosphere these days is so dark and uncertain." The rat smirked and shook his head. "This could almost be a plot in one of my stories."

April chuckled and Mona grinned.

"I guess so," Mona said. "Just before Raph and the others disappeared we were talking about how it was impossible for us to get pregnant, but now, here we are!" At the mention of Raph her face fell and tears pooled in her eyes. She wiped them away and scoffed. "God, I'm so emotional these days!" she said.

"I think it comes with the territory," April said.

"Yeah!" Mona replied. "Well, now that the hard part is over – no offence Master Spinter." The rat waved one long fingered hand. "I should go and tell Mei. I wonder how she'll take it?"

"I'm sure she'll be delighted," April said.

"I feel that it will be welcome news for her," Splinter said. "And perhaps it will give her something else to focus on beyond worrying for her children and Leonardo."

"Maybe," Mona said. "I think I'll go do that now."

"I'll come with you," April said. "I'll catch up with you later Master Splinter."

Splinter smiled, and Mona grinned at the happiness that was painted on the old rat's face. He was beaming with pride.

Together April and Mona walked the short distance from Splinter's abode to the most likely place Mei would have been: the Greenhouse. Mona knocked gently on the door, and eventually it opened, revealing a haggard Mei.

"Oh, Mei," April said, before enveloping her friend in a hug.

Mei stiffened briefly before returning the embrace. It seemed like an age since she had last seen April.

"Hi, April," Mei said, her voice wavering. "It's nice to see you again."

"I'm sorry I haven't been over sooner," April said. "Things have been crazy busy at Second Time Around."

"That is okay," Mei said. "I haven't exactly been going to visit you, either."

"It's understandable," April said. "You have a lot on your mind."

The three women walked into the Greenhouse and April approached one of the incubators.

"Wow," she said.

"Yes," Mei replied. "Donatello did a wonderful job putting this place together for us."

At the mention of 'us' Mei's face darkened and she turned away.

"I'm sure Leo and the others will be back soon," April said.

Mei snorted and crossed her arms.

"He would be better not returning," she said, "because when he does I'm going to kill him, for leaving me here alone with our children."

April shook her head and laughed.

"I think Mona's going to be feeling exactly the same about Raph now," she said.

Mei's brows furrowed and she looked at Mona.

"What do you mean?" she asked.

"Well," Mona said, "April and I had a bit of a surprise today. I'll just spit it out: I'm pregnant!"

Mei's eyes widened and her face broke out into its first real smile in weeks.

"Oh my goodness, _how_?" she asked

"I think you of all people should know how," Mona said, nodding at the eggs snuggled in the incubator.

Mei rolled her eyes but sprang forward to take Mona's webbed hands.

"That's not what I meant. But it's so wonderful! My babies will have a cousin to play with!"

Mei pulled Mona into a rib-crunching hug; Mona spluttered.

"Yes…it's great…now please let me breathe again!"

Mei let her friend go and grabbed her hands again.

"Oh, we have so much to plan! Raphael will be so excited when he gets back. They all will! And they _will_ be back!"

Mona couldn't help but grin widely at the sudden shift in her friend's mannerisms. Gone were the moping and the silence. The real Mei was back.

"I know they will," Mona said, "I know."

Michelangelo looked out of the curtains at the throng in front of the small stage and whistled lowly.

"I don't think you could physically get any more people into this place," he said.

"Ooh, exciting!" Cassio said, clapping his silk-gloved hands together. "I do draw in a crowd!"

Mike released the curtain and reflexively reached up to brush glitter from his shoulder; Cassio seemed to shed glitter no matter what he was wearing. The small turtle was resplendent at the moment in a long, luxurious blond wig, loose curls cascading down over his shoulders. Earlier in the day he had styled it – using Mike as a mannequin of course. He was wearing this first costume of the evening, a long glimmering evening dress with a split all the way up to the hip. He had a pink feather boa around his neck and shiny kitten heels. Surprisingly, he didn't look like something Nym had eaten and had subsequently barfed up – and Mike had seen that happen far too often over the past few weeks. In fact, as far as Mike was concerned Cassio looked distinctly female – only when he spoke and his lilting male voice came forth was the façade shattered.

"So, you know what to do?" Cassio asked.

Mike waved a hand and grinned.

"Dude, I'm an expert now. Stay back here, make sure no one touches the costume changes, make sure there's plenty of water – easy."

Cassio nodded, but cast a warning glare at Mike.

"And don't try on any of the clothes again. You stretch them! I'm tiny and you're huge!"

Mike grinned and shrugged his shoulders.

"What can I say, I just look good in them!"

Cassio shook his head and laughed.

"You looked like trumped up tranny," he said flatly. "You're just not fabulous enough, my dear."

Mike laughed and shook his head.

"Until I met you I was always the pretty one," he said.

Cassio laughed again and reached up to squeeze one of Mike's cheeks.

"You'll get over it, dear."

The din of the crowd fell into silence, which signalled Des and Don's arrival on stage.

"Ladies and gentlemen," Desdemona's voice sounded, and she began her introductions.

"Knock 'em dead, Cassi," Mike said, giving the other turtle a thumbs up.

However all the mirth was gone from Cassio's face, and Mike was sure he saw tears begin to pool under the fake eyelashes glued onto his painted face.

"Maybe one of them will knock me dead," Cassio said quietly.

"Huh?" Mike asked, cocking his head to one side.

Cassio shook the question away and carefully wiped his eyes.

"Thank God for waterproof mascara," he said. He turned to Mike. "Never mind. The show must go on."

Right on cue Cassio disappeared from backstage and reappeared on the other side of the curtain as Cassi Candy, leaving a perplexed Michelangelo behind.


	16. Chapter 16

**16.**

Don had often wondered what it would be like to have a dog fetch his morning paper. It would certainly have made a change from fishing one out of the garbage. This morning it had almost happened. He had opened his bedroom door after being awoken by scratching and whimpering, and found a wet paper parcel deposited in his hands.

"Blargh," Nym had said as Don tried to wipe dog saliva from his hands. "Here are the blueprints for the door. Sorry I couldn't get an electronic copy, but those are the original plans – they'll be completely accurate. And sorry about the drool." The dog looked down at his paws. "No thumbs, you see."

"It's okay," Don had said. Though in reality it wasn't. It was completely gross.

He retreated back into the bedroom again and sat on the floor, spreading the spit-damp papers out in front of him. He grabbed the pen and paper he kept beside the bed, and then began to devour the blueprints with his keen brown eyes. Home was definitely on the horizon.

The Manhattan skyline towered up above them, but the sights and smells were completely alien. Michelangelo watched as scores of mutants walked the streets in plain sight, ducking in and out of the dilapidated shops and perusing the wares on the ramshackle stalls. Beside him, Cassio was wrapped up against the cold in a long black coat, his face snuggling inside its fur-lined hood. Even with the three inch heeled boots he was wearing, he was still tiny compared to the ninja. Mike shoved his hands in the pockets of his own jacket – Cassio had insisted he wear clothes, saying "No one walks around MuTo naked, not even the hookers!" Luckily Othello had some clothes that accommodated Mike's broad shoulders.

He looked down as Cassio lifted the large aviator sunglasses from his face. The small turtle grinned and let the glasses fall again.

"Would you like to see another of my sister's conquests?" he asked.

"Uh, okay?"

In this world, one of Desdemona's conquests could be anything. Cassio led the way around a corner, dodging a cycling cat mutant who tore past them followed hotly by several dogs. Cassio pushed open the door of a quaint café, chimes jingling merrily, and led Mike inside. It was one of the better kept structures he had encountered so far. There was a homely atmosphere and the room was filled with the smell of freshly baked bread and cakes, with silky undertones of well roasted coffee.

"I was expecting something more…seedy," Mike said.

Cassio chuckled and pulled his sunglasses off, depositing them in his purse.

"I'll be sure to tell Des that you said that," he said. "This is Shellbucks, the hippest – and safest – place in MuTo to enjoy a smooth cup of java."

"It seems pretty nice," Mike said.

"Would you like some lunch? I don't pay here, a nice benefit of having such a powerful older sister."

"I could eat," Mike said. "I can always eat!"

"Lucky for some," Cassio said. "It's not easy to keep my girlish figure!"

He sat down at a nearby table, nestled in a quiet corner, and Mike chose a seat to keep his back against the wall. Cassio shrugged off his coat and threw it over another table. The place was quietly busy, humming with the activity of eating and drinking. The low rumble of light jazz filtered through the background. Mike snagged a menu and his eyes lit up.

"There's a whole page dedicated to pizza!" he said.

Cassio chuckled and flattened his menu on the table.

"I think you might have mentioned that you like pizza, maybe a few hundred times already?" he said.

"What can I say, I'm a growing boy!"

"Hmm, growing outwards maybe," Cassio said. "You're far too old to be classed as a boy anymore."

"I'm only twenty-two!" Mike protested.

"Still not a boy."

"You're lucky I'm so easy-going or I might take offense," Mike said, his voice laced with mock hurt. "You're mean."

"I'm delightful," Cassio said, before reaching up a hand and clicking his fingers at a waiter.

Leonardo parried away Raphael's thrust easily and swung his katana out in a calculated arc. Raph stopped the blow easily and with a smirk he tried to hook the katana's blade between the sai's yoku. Leo predicted the move and quickly stepped back out of range, before leaping upwards with a grunt and landing behind Raphael. Raph spun around and charged Leo, trying to get some blows off on Leo's plastron. Leo leapt back and gritted his teeth, tired of being on the defensive. He ran forwards and Raph was forced to flip the sai up to protect his forearms from the sweeping sword blows suddenly rained down on him. The brothers were locked together in combat for several more minutes until the little timer they had found went off. They ceased and bowed.

They had discovered that Desdemona had knocked down several walls in the large apartment to create a spacious gym area full of begged, borrowed and stolen workout equipment. The large floor space provided an excellent area for sparring, and Raphael especially was enjoying the variety of weight training machines available.

Leo wiped off his brow and looked at the far corner of the room. During their sparring he had noticed Desdemona and Othello come into the room. Othello seemed to have recovered somewhat over the past two weeks since his collapse, and had been working hard to regain strength. Currently the siblings were engaged in some training, Desdemona pummelling the Thai punch mitts her brother was holding. She was raining blows down furiously; Othello was straining against them. Her arms bulged and flexed with each savage movement, and it soon became apparent why she was so muscular. Her wrapped hands swept with great accuracy to hit the sweet spot every time. Raphael crossed his arms and watched.

"Not bad," he said, "a little sloppy, and a little amateurish, but not bad."

Desdemona seemed to hear the comment because she grunted and the blows became heavier and faster.

"Tut tut," Raph said. "Is this what it's like watching me when I get mad? Sheesh."

"Yes, Raph," Leo said. "When you let your temper get the better of you all form disappears."

Raph continued to watch the training as Leonardo let his eyes wander around the gym. He was immediately drawn to a katana mounted on the wall, its oriental splendour standing out in huge contrast to the grey and dreary surroundings. The saya was made of dark lacquered wood, with an intricate design of cherry blossoms trailing down its length. It was a beautiful piece, but was it an actual sword?

When Othello and Desdemona's practice soon came to a halt, they walked over to Leo. Desdemona's skin was glistening with sweat. Othello looked somewhat winded.

"So you found my father's katana," Des said, wiping her neck with a towel. "I was wondering when you would notice it."

"May I?" Leonardo asked, gesturing at it.

"It's not antique, I'm afraid," Desdemona said, flexing her fingers in and out. "It was made in the nineteen-forties as far as I can remember. My father practiced kendo in his youth and was given the katana as a present when he received his first-dan grade."

Leonardo reached up, but Othello, who had at least five inches in height more than him, got there first and lifted the sword down. Leo unsheathed the blade and looked at it critically. It clearly wasn't as impressive as his own twin blades, but it certainly wasn't a tourist shop knock-off. He gave it a few experimental swipes and nodded.

"Not too bad. It's nicely balanced."

"And very sharp," Othello said. "Des has given herself more than enough wounds trying to use it."

Desdemona gave her brother a piercing glare. He attempted not to shrink back.

"My father taught me some very simple techniques," she said. "But he was no master and neither am I."

"Though I think you see yourself as a pretty good street fighter," Raph said, a wry smile quirking his lips.

"I didn't get all these scars for nothing, pal," Des said, tilting her chin upwards in her patented way. "I think you see yourself as pretty tough too."

"Damn straight," Raph said.

"Well, let's see how tough you are, little man," Des said, taking on a fighting stance. "But leave your spaghetti forks behind.

"Little man? i_Spaghetti forks/i_?" Raph spluttered. "Oh, I'm going to enjoy this."

"Try not to kill him."

"Try not to kill her."

Leonardo and Othello looked at each other after they spoke at the same time. Both shook their heads. Raphael thrust his sai at Leonardo for him to hold stepped into the open floor space and beckoned Des forward with his fingers.

"Bring it on, lady," he said. "I'll show you a whole new world of pain."

The two turtles faced off against one another, and inevitably it was Raphael who made the first move. He stepped towards Desdemona with a right hook, and she dodged it swiftly, parrying it with a volley of jabs. They barely made an impact on Raph, who returned with a cross and caught Des on the jaw. Her head snapped back immediately and she stepped out to deliver a roundhouse kick, which Raph countered easily.

"Come on, I thought you were good!" he said.

Immediately the fight stepped up. Desdemona got off a few blows to Raph's plastron until he got the measure of her rhythm and was able to predict and block with ease. As Des delivered another roundhouse Raphael leaped to the side and brought his own leg up to hook hers, successfully throwing her off balance. Des toppled to the floor in a heap. Raph blew on his fingernails and placed one foot on the fallen mutant's shell.

"Who's the daddy?" he said.

Desdemona turned around and sat up, surreptitiously adjusting her wig. She stood.

"That was an ass-whooping," she said. The two mutants, who had butted heads so many times over the past month, stared each other down for several moments before Des reached out a hand. "I consider myself had," she said.

Raph took the offered hand and shook it curtly.

"I'm not sayin' your bad," he said. "I'm just _very_ good."

"And very big-headed," Leo said, rolling his eyes. "Forgive him, Desdemona. But you know by now. He's just…"

"Rude?" Des offered. "Yes, I had noticed. But then, so am I." She turned her attention to her brother, who seemed desperate to hide his smile behind his hand. "Come on, Elmo. Time to let you get some punches off."

At the mention of that name the smile disappeared.

"Don't call me Elmo," he said sharply.

The two bickered as they headed back to their corner of the training room. Leo shook his head at Raph's expression of self-satisfaction.

"Don't be so proud of yourself," he said. "You, a trained ninja, versus someone with little-to-no combat experience? You were bound to win."

Raph shrugged his shoulders and hooked his thumbs into his belt.

"I know. It just felt good to knock that broad down a peg or two – literally." He watched as Des strapped the Thai pads to her arms and let Othello set himself up to deliver some blows. "Anyway, I'm gonna go see Donnie and find out what the score is with the door. The sooner he figures it out, the sooner we can get outta here and away from these guys."

"Yeah, about that," Leo said, clapping Raph on the shoulder and ushering him out of the training room. "Donnie and I were talking. How would you like a new room mate?"

"Huh?"

Leo explained. Raphael exclaimed.

"Oh, ihell/i no!"


	17. Chapter 17

**17.**

Donatello gathered together his tools and slung his bag over his shoulder. This was it. He had studied the blueprints to death. There was nothing more he could learn about the door. It was show time.

He went to the living area where the little group had gathered to prepare for what was hopefully the last evening the ninjas would even have to spend in the fetid cesspool that was MuTo. Leonardo was looking calm, as was expected. Mike was fidgeting with his nunchauka, apparently unable to decide whether to stow them in his belt or keep them in his hands. Raphael had his arms crossed and was staring out across the New York skyscape, watching the cars flash by in streaks of light against the dark night. Othello and Desdemona were chatting quietly in a corner, their heads bowed together closely. Othello's fingers were adorned with what must have been custom-made knuckle dusters. Desdemona had a gun strapped to her left thigh, and her father's sword at her right side. Cassio was sitting on the couch, looking small and entirely ill-at-ease, gently stroking Nym's ears.

Leo turned as Don entered.

"Are we ready?" he asked.

"Yes," Don replied. "As ready as we can be."

Nym had appeared in the flat about an hour earlier and said that maintenance workers who had been tinkering with the air-conditioning vents at MedTechCorp had left one of the vent covers on the exterior of the building open. It was several floors up, but was the perfect way for them to gain access to the building. The opportunity could not be missed, and Leo had called for everyone to be ready to go in an hour. Now the time had come.

"Okay, gather round," he said. When he had everyone's attention, he cleared his throat. "Let's go over this one last time. Nym can safely guide us past the guards after we scale the wall. Once we're in, Nym will cause a distraction so we can start climbing. Raph, Mike and I will each climb with one of you on our backs so we can reach the open vent. Once we're in, Don will lead us to the secret lab and get to work using the maps and blueprints we've got. We get in, and hope that Don can figure out how to use the transporter and can get us home. You're then free to deal with Michio Haruka."

Desdemona nodded

"Right," she said.

"Any questions?" Leo asked. At the silence he got as a response, he nodded. "Okay then, let's go."

The journey was relatively simple, which immediately put Don on edge. It shouldn't have been so easy for them to sneak out of MuTo, but apparently Nym knew the streets and their blind spots like the back of his paw. They reached the MedTechCorp compound in good time, and he and his brothers launched their grappling ropes up and scaled the wall. Des, Othello and Cassio followed without incident, which further grated on Don's nerves. In total silence and under the cover of darkness, the group of seven mutant turtles and a talking dog snuck towards the back of the building where the open vent apparently was. If it had been noticed and fixed in the interim period between Nym giving them the information and them arriving, they would be in major trouble.

The big dog trotted along beside Leonardo, and eventually Leo signalled for him to go create the distraction. Immediately Nym bared his teeth and ran pell mell at the guards who were nearing their position, and Leo ushered the others to hurry along. The sound of the huge dog's impossibly deep growls and barks sliced through the relative quiet of the compound, and by the sound of the shocked yells of the men he was running at, they didn't know what to do. As the ninjas attached their climbing gear to their hands to aid them in scaling the few floors upwards, there was one single shot and a sharp yelp.

"Nym!"

Othello clamped one large hand over Cassio's mouth. Tears streamed down the younger turtle's cheeks. Everyone knew what had happened. It was an eventuality Leo had prayed against, but had thought was inevitable. Nym was dead. However, his distraction had given the group enough time to begin to scale the wall, and soon enough they were in through the vent and on their way to the lab.

At the late hour there weren't many employees around, but there were many surveillance cameras. Don expertly guided them through the warren of air conditioning tunnels until he kicked open a vent and deftly grabbed it before it could hit the floor. They had arrived.

Don dropped down silently and the rest of the group held their breath, hoping Don could unlock the door and allow them access before someone arrived.

"Ah ha!"

The door opened with a dulled swish. The rest of the group jumped down from the overhead tunnels, just as klaxons began screaming through the dim room, spluttering their loud warning that intruders had arrived. Don cursed and threw down his tools.

"Dammit!" he said, spinning around to face the others. "She must have had a hidden tripwire that I missed. If she didn't know we were here, she sure does now."

"Good," Des said, pulling her gun out of the holster strapped to her left thigh. "Let her come."

"Not just yet, lady," Raph said. "We gotta get our ticket home ready first."

"Come on," Don said.

The group of mutants charged down the staircase and across the lab to the strange tissue-like transporter pad that had originally brought them here. Don's hands immediately went to the controls. Raph glanced around the laboratory at the creeping mass of spongy tendrils that squirmed up the walls, seeming to merge at the transporter.

"What the heck is all this?" he asked. "And what the heck is that?"

Raphael pointed at the globulous being that was writhing in and out of the tissue-covered walls. Two tiny black eyes flicked from him to Don and back again. The silver tubes in its head pulsed.

"That must be the alien," Don said as his eyes roved over the controls. His fingers, however, were hesitant.

"Ugly fella," Raph said. "But it knows we're here."

"The whole building must know we're here by now!" Mike said.

"Donnie," Leo cut in. "Can you figure this thing out?"

"I'll try, Leo."

The klaxons echoed louder and louder in the metallic chamber and the warmth of the machinery was stifling. Leo knew that they were banking heavily on Michio Haruka not allowing any guards into her secret lab. Even so, they were time-limited. It wouldn't be long before Haruka herself arrived.

The strange, fibrous, vein-covered walls writhed and pulsed, and the creature seemed to glide in between them, moving towards Donatello. As Don reached for the controls the creature's wide mouth gaped open like a moist slit and it looked like it should have screeched – but no sound came out.

As soon as Don's fingertips hit the controls he was suddenly thrown backwards as if struck by lightening. He screamed as he sailed across the lab, slamming hard against the metal floor, his shell scraping loudly as he spun to a halt.

"Don!"

The brothers collectively ran to their fallen comrade and helped him to his feet. Don shook the fuzz from his brain and patted himself down.

"Ow," he said. "I was hoping that wouldn't happen. The alien knows what we're trying to do."

"God damn!" Raphael pulled out his sai and spun around, growling. "This thing is i_going down/i_!"

"No!" Don placed a hand on Raphael's arm; Raph growled again. "We can't risk harming it. The transporter is made out of its cells, and if the power for it comes from the creature and we kill it, all we'll succeed in doing is stranding ourselves."

The creature pulsated, streaks of light passing through it in thick cords. It was like it was laughing at them.

"Well, what do we do then, Brainiac?" Raph asked. "Did you factor that into your plan?"

"Actually, I did," Don said.

He set his bag down on the ground and pulled out a sack filled with something bulky. He tipped its contents onto the floor. Several thick syringes with chunky needles rolled out.

"Anaesthetic," he said simply. "What better way to disable an organic being?"

"Donnie, Donnie, you are the man!" Raph said, grabbing a syringe and spinning it in his hand.

Don picked up a syringe himself and swished around its contents.

"Now it makes sense," Des said. "I had no idea why you asked for this stuff."

"Let's just hope it works," Don said. "There's no guarantee." He took a deep breath. "Okay everyone, let's grab and stab."

The seven mutant turtles collected their anaesthetic and ran at the alien tissues, stabbing at the first available area. The creature pulsed and writhed more urgently, and the only thing missing was the feral scream that never came. Donatello emptied the syringe into the side of what appeared to be the creature's head, and immediately a thin tendril snapped out and wrapped itself around his neck.

"i_You will die/i!_"

The screaming words reverberated inside Don's skull and he reached up to try and wrench it off. Immediately Leonardo was at his side and sliced the tissue stem and the noise stopped.

"Thanks, Leo," Don said.

They watched as the pulses of the creature slowed and the lights dimmed, and the anaesthetic seemed to be doing its job.

"Okay, Donnie. Let's –"

Leonardo's voice was drowned out by an impossibly loud screech. He looked up to the top of the laboratory staircase to see a skeletal woman gripping the railing for dear life. Her lungs were open with rage, and she began to stumble down the stairs.

"Stop it!" she screamed. "Stop what you're doing!"

The TMNT drew their weapons again, leaving the syringes sticking out of the creature, as the small figure of Michio Haruka finally reached the lowest level.

"We don't have time for this," Leo said. "Donnie, get to work. We'll hold her off."

"I don't think that's gonna be too hard," Raph said, snorting.

Haruka was still leaning heavily on their railing, her breathing scratchy and laboured. She was wafer thin, her skin translucent and deep, dark smudges under her eyes. However, her abdomen was horribly distended in a macabre parody of pregnancy. It seemed to glow faintly beneath her thin dress and she gripped it as if she were in agony.

Desdemona stepped forward, and she was a terrifying, towering muscular figure in stiletto heels compared to the trembling human. She raised her gun.

"Hello, Michio," Des said, her voice smooth and cold like an ice floe.

"Flith!" Haruka spat.

Desdemona's face twisted with hatred and she pushed the gun in Haruka's face.

"Shut the fuck up!" she said. "I'm going to take pleasure in blowing your rotten head right off your shoulders."

Standing off to a small distance, Leonardo winced. The whole thing was tragic. Othello and Cassio stepped forward to stand on either side of their sister. Haruka's eyes strained to see the gun pressed up against her temple. She trembled violently.

"You're all scum! Inhuman, mutant scum!"

At that Cassio got his face right in Haruka's and looked as if he was going to strike her.

"i_You're/i_ inhuman!" he said. "You're the murderer. You're the one who killed our father – your father!"

"I did not!"

Haruka shrieked and clutched weakly at her abdomen again. Leo's eyes narrowed as he saw something strange. Surely not? He tapped Raphael, whose jaw fell open.

"Whoa!" he said, and in turn tapped Mike.

Desdemona pressed the gun barrel further into Haruka's forehead. Her hand was coolly still.

"Desdemona," Leo said, but Des ignored him.

"You don't deserve to live," she said. "You created us out of spite, and then you cast us out to die like i_animals/i_!"

Othello bent down, his teeth clenched.

"You created me as a sick joke to try and mate me with my own clone," he said, "but you're the unnatural one."

"Guys, seriously, look!"

Leonardo's comments were in vain. The three turtles, facing their maker and their persecutor, were not listening. However, they stepped back as Haruka shrieked again and fell to the ground, doubled up in agony. Des's arm began to waver and she watched Haruka writhe.

"What on earth?"

The outline of…something was pressing up against the distended abdomen. Desdemona looked closer and stepped back, turning to face Leonardo.

"Did you see -?"

"Yes! That's what I was trying –"

Leo's sentence was cut off again as there was a sudden burst of flesh and blood as Haruka's abdomen opened like an overripe fruit.


	18. Chapter 18

**18.**

Michio Haruka wailed and writhed as a strange, bloodied creature began scrambling to crawl out of her abdomen. Its skin was the same texture as the alien tissue and its eyes were small and black, but otherwise it looked like a well-articulated human baby.

"Oh. My. God!" Mike shrieked.

Haruka became still and her head lolled to the side. Blood trickled from the corner of her mouth. The creature found its feet and Des, Othello and Cassio slowly stepped back to the ninja turtles. It was slimy and red, but its eyes darted around quickly and it was steady on its stubby legs.

"Donnie, we have a problem over here," Leo said, keeping his swords drawn. "Can you hurry it up?"

"This is kind of new to me, Leo!" Don said.

The little group stepped back as the freakish baby stared at each of them in turn. It opened its mouth to show thick, toothless gums, but emitted no sound.

"It's just a little baby," Raph said. "An ugly one. What harm can it do?"

Michelangelo grabbed Raph's shoulders and shook him.

"Raph, it just burst out of someone's stomach. Haven't you seen the movies? We're gonna die!"

Raphael wrenched himself from Mike's grip and looked as if he was going to strike him across the face.

"Knock it off, you two!" Leo said. "Let's just be glad there don't seem to be any guards coming and all we have to do is deal with some gross alien baby."

The little creature looked down at its hands and lifted them, clenching them into fists. It squeezed its eyes shut and the air around it began to spark with an electric luminescence. A bolt of white lightening flew up from its head to strike the ceiling.

"Oh, crud," Raph said.

"Donnie!" Leo yelled.

"I'm trying, I'm trying!" Don said. "But when that thing did…that it spiked the controls!"

"Hurry!"

The little creature ran with impossible speed across the room and disappeared into one of the tissue walls. It slid around the room and across to Donatello.

"Don, look out!"

Leo could only watch as the creature leapt out of the console and straight towards his brother's throat.

Don ducked as the alien leapt out of the console he was working at. He pulled his bo out of his belt and thrust it towards his attacker.

"Guys," he said, "the anaesthetic isn't going to last forever. Once the big guy wakes up I don't think we're going to stand a chance."

"Then let's get the little bastard!" Raphael said.

He yelled as he launched himself across the room in a vicious kick. The alien dodged out of the way and sent out another jolt of electricity.

"What is this, a Japanese cartoon?" Raph said. "How the hell is it doing that?"

"I have no idea," Leo said. "All I know is that we need to disable it."

He quickly glanced around the room and leapt over towards what looked like a large, raised glass testing chamber with a lockable door.

"Try and herd it over here!" he said.

Raph, Mike and Leo leapt into the air, flashing past the creature too fast for it to know who to look at or what to do. Othello and Cassio ran across to the chamber. The door seemed stuck, but Othello managed to wrench it open. Desdemona aimed her gun at the open door.

"Get it in there and I'll shoot it," she said. "You won't get more disabled than that."

Leo swung past the creature, narrowly dodging a spike of lightening. Each jolt seemed to be sucked into the alien skin covering the walls. It was beginning to pulsate more quickly.

"The little guy is feeding the big guy," Don said. "Every time it sparks the big one seems to be waking up even more. And the jolts are erasing everything I'm trying to do!"

"Working on it, Donnie!" Mike said, spinning his nunchaku in the creatures face. Its little baby features scrunched in confusion.

Gradually the team herded it across to the chamber. Othello and Cassio were standing by to shut the glass door as soon as it was in. With one final move Michelangelo leapt over the box, and the creature followed. It wasn't strong enough, however, and as if in a calculated arc it landed inside the box. Othello and Cassio slammed it shut and locked it. The alien baby looked shooked, almost like it would cry. Desdemona stepped closer and held the gun steady.

"Do you think the glass is bulletproof?" Cassio asked.

"Let's find out," Des said.

She aimed and let off one round. The bullet pierced the glass easily, shattering it in jarring circles. It bore straight into the creatures head, directly between its eyes, and exited the back glass panel in a hail of brain and gore. It was most certainly disabled.

"Nice shootin', Tex," Mike said, regaining his breath. He chuckled. "I always wanted to say that."

"Come on, let's go," Leo said.

The turtles ran over to Don, whose fingers were flying deftly over the fibrous keypad.

"I think I've cracked it," he said. "The repetition helped me eliminate errors. And this thing keeps a log of all activity. I've been able to find the data from when we were pulled into this dimension, and by reversing to co-ordinates I should be able to send us back home."

"Then let's go!" Raph said.

He leapt up onto the platform and wavered as it vibrated below him. The pulsing lights were growing stronger. Leo went to join him, but Don placed a hand on his shoulder to turn him back.

Desdemona, Othello and Cassio had walked back to the crumpled figure lying in a pool of blood on the metal floor. Astonishingly Haruka's nails were scrabbling weakly against the tiles; she wasn't dead.

"I'm…" she said, her words guttering as she choked on her own bodily fluids.

Desdemona's yellow eyes narrowed and she pointed the gun at Haruka's head again.

"I'm…sorry…" Haruka said quietly.

Des's eyes widened and her arm wavered.

"…for everything. This is…my punishment."

Each word brought up more blood and spit, and it pooled under Haruka's head. Desdemona's gun clattered to the floor, thankfully not discharging. Don took a step forward but Leo stopped him, motioning for him to wait. Raphael snorted in the background. Desdemona knelt down gently and grabbed Haruka's face sharply, squeezing the woman's failed face. Haruka's eyes were filled with clouded terror, but she managed to hold Desdemona's gaze. The female turtle suddenly spat in the woman's face, directly below her eyes. Haruka winced.

"You don't deserve our forgiveness," Des said, and then took a deep breath. "But…you'll have it."

"i_What/i_?" Othello said.

"She's dead anyway," Des said. "And I never expected to hear those words."

Tears began to slip down Haruka's cheeks, and the whole room began to rumble with a new energy. Leo watched as Des pulled the chain from around her neck, the damned crescent moon pendent that had brought them here in the first place. Des pressed it into Haruka's palm. Haruka gave one final gasp, tightening her fingers around the necklace, before finally she was gone. The pendent slipped from her hand, lying in the pool of blood, its silver finished turned red. Desdemona stood and stared at the dead body, before bringing one stiletto heel down onto the necklace and shattering it into many pieces of one blood red moon.

"She's dead." she said simply, and turned away.

Tears were streaming down Cassio's face and he turned into Othello for comfort.

"What do we do now?" he asked.

Othello embraced his brother and shrugged.

"I don't know," he said. "Des?"

Desdemona said nothing. Leonardo, ushered forward by Don, cleared his throat and glanced around at the pulsing walls.

"We were going to broach this subject earlier, but we left so suddenly I didn't get the chance," he said. "We'd like to offer to take you home with us. This place is…nightmarish. If you want to leave it behind, we'll find some way to accommodate you. Our New York City is just as big as yours is."

Cassio's tearful eyes were brightened with hope and he looked up at Othello and then at Des.

"God, we can get away from everything," he said. Suddenly he looked much older, as if the burden of a thousand years was showing on his face.

Othello pulled out of their hug and placed an arm around Cassio's shoulders. Cassio looked terrified, as if the thought of not leaving MuTo would shatter him utterly. However, Othello gently guided him to the platform. Cassio burst into tears, but was smiling. Othello followed him up onto the transport pad. The whole room was vibrating, and the creature's eyes began to blink slowly.

"Come on!" Raph spat. "I'm not getting stuck here when we're so close!"

Mikey and Leo had joined him on the platform. That only left Don and Des. Desdemona turned away from them to face the dead body again, and looked around the laboratory. The cavernous grey chamber loomed up around them, splashed with horrific wounds of pink alien flesh. The blood on the floor was so bright.

"Come on, lady!" Raph yelled.

Des turned back around. Donatello stepped forward and held out a hand.

"Come with us," he said, "and get away from this nightmare. Come with me. Please."

Des looked from his face to his hand, her expression completely blank.

"Dessie, i_please/i!_" Cassio yelled. "We can't live without you. You can't split us up! What would Father say?"

The drowsing alien roused and the walls were streaked with energy even brighter than before.

"i_Please/i_," Don said.

Tears slipped down Desdemona's cheeks; the sight was distressing on a whole new level. However, Des took Don's hand and he led her to the pad. Cassio wrapped his arms around her as Don took his place at the controls. Lights began to fall from the ceiling, sparking wildly. Glass was breaking everywhere.

"Now, Don!" Leo commanded.

Don punched in the send code and leapt up into the pad. Desdemona grabbed his hands and stared at him, her expression one of abject terror.

The seven turtles disappeared as the ceiling completely gave way.


	19. Chapter 19

**19.**

Mona threw down the pregnancy book and huffed out a sharp breath. Nausea, backache, constipation, mood swings, even more nausea; followed by stretching, tearing and ripping, then followed by years of diaper changing, boo-boo bandaging and discipline. Oh, how she dearly wanted to kill Raphael. That is, if she ever saw him again. The brothers had been gone for just over a month, and there had been no sign of them. Mona felt tears well in her eyes again and she shook them away, gritting her teeth. There was no point in crying, even though that was all she wanted to do these days.

April had been excellent since they had found out she was pregnant. She had bought books and magazines, had sourced out websites and had been a calming force in the midst of the maelstrom of emotions. Mei had snapped out of her depressed trance and was once again like the lady of the household, making sure all the domestic chores were done, and also making sure that Mona didn't do too much. The women had estimated that Mona was at least three to four months gone. Without access to medical help it was difficult to say; that was what worried Mona the most. With Mei, it was a natural thing for her to lay her eggs. Turtles did it all the time alone in the wild. However, Mona wasn't sure exactly what was happening inside her. They assumed that she was growing a baby inside her womb – and that was assuming she had a womb. Mona had no idea what she was, or how she came to be mutated. Her first memory was of coming to in a junkyard to see the faces of four small mutant turtles gazing down at her, telling her that she had taken a 'mega fall' and was she alright?

Mona wiped away more tears and gripped the edge of the couch with her webbed fingers. Now, she might never see those faces again. She might never see Raphael again; and if their child was born alive, it would never see its father. What if it looked like him? Mona buried her face in her hands. It was all just too much to bear.

Her sensitive hearing picked up footsteps coming towards the lair through the access tunnels. Her sorrows forgotten and replaced by a burning fear, and ran as fast as she could to the Greenhouse and pushed open the door; she knew Mei was there.

"Mei!"

"Mona?" Mei said, turning away from the eggs in the incubator. "What is wrong?"

"Someone's coming," Mona said. "I can hear footsteps and mumbling in the main access way."

Mei's face darkened and she picked up the weapon she had stowed in the corner of the room. It was her usual three-section-staff; she gripped it tightly.

"You stay here," Mei commanded; there was no arguing with that tone. "I shall find out who it is. If it's maintenance workers who have taken a wrong turn, it won't take much to scare them away."

Mona rankled at being told to stay put, but her knew in her condition she was no use in defending their home. She clenched her fists.

"I'll go tell Master Splinter," she said. "I don't understand why Don's warning system didn't tip us off earlier."

"Who knows," Mei said, spinning the ends of her staff.

She immediately leapt off towards the main entrance to the lair that was fed by the access tunnels, and Mona went to warn Splinter. There was a tiny speck of hope glimmering at the back of her eye, but she didn't dare to acknowledge it. If only…

"You never told us you lived in a sewer," Cassio said, his face crunched up in a mixture of bewilderment and disgust.

"Get used to it, little dude," Mike said, slinging an arm around his companion's shoulder. "From now on," he said with a grand gesture, "all this is yours."

Cassio snorted.

"That's fine," he said. "Nothing can be worse than MuTo. I'd rather live in a garbage pit than go back there."

The group had reappeared on the exact spot where Raphael had picked up the moon pendant that had sent them on their unexpected trip, and had quickly descended to the sewers and out of sight. The fire escape stairwells had made it easy for the non-ninja members to make their way down safely. Donatello had breathed in the New York air with a new sense of appreciation. It may have been polluted, but it still smelled so sweet. There really was no place like home.

As they walked, Don's mind turned the events of the past month over and over. So much had happened, and it didn't seem possible that they had actually made it home. But here they were, back in their own sewers. It had felt surreal when they had reached the perimeter of the warning system he had installed, and was once more able to punch in the access code to pass through safely. Leonardo and Raphael were ahead of the others practically running home to their partners. Donatello's heart gave a little pang, and he turned back to look at those trailing behind him.

Othello and Desdemona were taking up the rear, both with entirely different expressions on their near-identical faces. Othello looked contented as if for the first time in his life he was able to relax. For him, leaving MuTo had clearly been a good idea. Desdemona, however, was looking completely blank. Othello had his big hand on his sister's shoulder. Des looked as if she was blotting out the whole scene.

Don reflected on what Othello had talked about before, that evening in the kitchen when he had collapsed. i_She used to be so happy. She loved life, as poor as we were. But, not any more. Sometimes I think she would rather be dead_./i Her body language at the moment was definitely one of a person who had decided to switch off. It made Don's heart ache even more, though he shook that feeling away. He could deal with that another time.

Raphael and Leonardo had stopped and were waiting for them at the last bend in the access tunnel. Both had twin expression of annoyance and had their arms folded, tapping their feet. They had agreed to enter the lair together, but now those two at least seemed to be regretting it.

"Come on," Raph said. "What is this, gridlock on the New Jersey turnpike?"

"We're coming, Raph," Don said, and sped up a little.

As soon as all seven turtles had gathered together, Leonardo led the way around the corner. There was a flash in the darkness and a feral growl, and immediately they were all on their guard. Leo drew his swords and leapt forwards; Don's chest tightened. Master Splinter, Mona, Mei, the eggs, the lair! What had happened? If anything had happened they would never forgive themselves. However, Leonardo's swords clattered to the ground and he ran forwards. There was a wooden clunk and the clank of chains, and suddenly Leo's arms were full of a familiar and long-missed figure.

"Leonardo! Oh, Leonardo, you're i_back/i_!"

Mei Pei Chi tightened her arms around Leo's neck; Leo was too happy to care that he as being partially choked.

"Mei," he spluttered, and hugged her back just as tightly.

"Let's go!" Raph said, and led the charge up into the lair-proper.

Don and Mike couldn't help but break away from the others and run after him. The three brothers bolted up into the lair and burst into the main living area. There was no one there.

"Uh, hello?" Mike said. "Anyone home?"

"My sons!"

Splinter and Mona Lisa appeared from their hiding place in a dark alcove. The old rat's face lit up with relief and pride. Mona's eyes immediately locked onto Raphael, and she ran forwards. Raph opened his arms to her.

"Oh, Raph!" she squealed, and Raphael picked her up and swung her around.

"Mona!" Raph said, before setting her down and looking her over. "Uh, babe, you been comfort eatin' or somethin'? Ya look…bigger."

Don made a 'cease and desist' gesture across his throat at his brother's stupidity, but Mona hugged Raphael harder.

"Normally I would kill you for that," she said, "but I have something to tell you. I –" she broke off as she saw something at the entrance. "Who are they?"

Splinter had noticed the three newcomers as well, ushered in by Leo and Mei. He stepped forward, leaning heavily on his walking stick. The rat had always seemed old, but now Donatello noticed his age more keenly than ever.

"Master Splinter," Leo said, breaking away from Mei briefly to bow to his sensei.

"Leonardo," Splinter said, his face softening even further, "welcome home."

Leo placed his hand on Mei's waist again and nodded towards the new mutants.

"Master, this is Desdemona, Othello, and Cassio. They helped us when we were lost and provided us with shelter and food when we had none. Please, may we return the favour to them?"

Splinter looked over the three turtles. His gaze fell on them in turn; the female looked terrified, the two males trying their best to look presentable.

"Of course," Splinter said. "Anyone who helps my sons when they need it will always be welcome in our home."

Desdemona stepped forward and bowed deeply to Splinter, her hair falling down over her face.

"Konbanwa, Spinter-sama," she said. "Anata wa totemo shinsetsu desu."

Splinter looked surprised and pleased that she was able to converse with him in his native language. Recognising the look, Desdemona explained:

"Our father was from Osaka," she said. "That is…a long story."

"And there will be time for it later," Splinter said. "But now, I believe a welcome home repast is in order. Let us break bread in celebration of your safe return home, my sons." he said. He then continued with a sparkle in his eye, "I trust that pizza will suffice?"

"All right, Master Splinter!" Mike said, punching the air. "I'll totally get on it right now."

Mike disappeared off to find the pizza takeout menus, and Mei smiled gently at Mona, gesturing at Raph with her eyes. Raph caught the gesture and his brows came together in confusion. He glared at Mei.

"What, is there something on my face?" he asked.

"No, Raph," Mona said, leading him to the couch. "You should sit down. I have something to tell you."

"A'ight," Raph said, looking even more confused, "shoot."

"Well, you pointed out that I look a little heavier than I did before you left," she said. Raph nodded, but clearly still didn't have a clue. "The reason for that is because, well… I'm pregnant."

Raph nodded but it was clear the information hadn't quite filtered through his brain yet. Don wanted to rush forward and congratulate Mona, but felt he shouldn't until the penny dropped for his brother.

It finally did.

"i_WHAT?/i_"


	20. Chapter 20

**Eplilogue**

Two months had passed since the turtles had returned to their own dimension. That made it three months since they had met Des, Othello and Cassio. In the interim time Leo and Mei's eggs had been carefully monitored. As far as Don was concerned, hatching was imminent. Mona Lisa was now around six months pregnant and getting bigger and crankier every day. It was a source of endless amusement for Don to see how his hot-headed brother was coping with his increasingly short-tempered girlfriend. The lair was a buzz of activity as the children's rooms were prepared, as well as making a new area of the sewer habitable for their new friends. Don had done a lot of painting and wiring, not to mention expanding the range of the heating systems and the plumbing and doing just about anything technical that needed to be done. He hadn't minded. It had kept his brain occupied and his thoughts away from other matters. However, now that the only thing left to do was to put the finer touches onto the decoration – a task that he was woefully inept at – there was nothing left apart from routine maintenance and patrols to keep him busy. That left plenty of down time available for his mind to run off in all sorts of directions. Eventually, he had given in.

He was driving the Sewer Sled slowly through the tunnels towards April's apartment. Desdemona, Othello, and Cassio's new place wasn't quite finished yet. It was around a hundred meters away from the pumping station and far enough away to give everyone privacy but not to isolate anyone. In the meantime the three turtles had been staying in April's basement apartment as she hadn't found a new tenant to replace the last one. They would only be there a few more days until the fumes from the paint cleared out. Then they would move the furniture that the turtles had acquired from junkyards and April had bought from second hand stores, and everyone would be settled. Don knew at the moment that Othello and Cassio were back at the lair being taught all about video games by Mike – the brothers had never seen a console or a home computer before – and that left Desdemona alone in the apartment. Don was determined. He had his chance, and if he blew it, so be it. At least it would get the thoughts out of his head.

He parked up at the end of the tunnel and activated the hidden doorway to exit out into the yard behind April's apartment. He took a deep breath and went to knock on the door to the basement unit. His hand hesitated, but he shook the nervousness off and berated himself. It wasn't long before the door opened and Desdemona greeted him. His breath caught in his throat. Since she had left MuTo the formerly muscular mutant had lost a lot of mass, and looked decidedly more feminine. She was still toned and by no means looked weak, but she wasn't as intimidating as she had been. Instead of wearing lingerie and heels, she was frequently seen sporting baggy sweaters and jeans, or even nothing at all, as she was now. It should have been indecent, but it just seemed natural. However, she still wore her black wig.

"Hi, Don," she said. "The boys aren't here."

Don cleared his throat and nodded.

"I know," he said. "I came here to see you."

"Oh?" she asked. "Well, come on in."

"Actually, I wanted to ask if you would come out. Here. With me. Uh –"

Damn. What a good way to start. Des blinked and waited for further information. Don sighed.

"I really like you, Des," he said. "And, I'd like to get to know you better. If you're interested in getting to know me."

Desdemona's mouth formed a soundless 'o' and she reached for her cigarettes, but frowned. There weren't any, because April didn't allow anyone to smoke in the apartment. And Cassio had begged his sister to stop. Don tried to play down how endearing he felt that nervous quality was and he waited, his heart in his mouth.

"Well," Des said, fumbling around with her hands as if she didn't quite know what to do with them, "you're a nice guy, even though I tried to kill you."

Don chuckled. That incident had only been three months before, but now it seemed a million light years away. Des pinned him with a serious gaze.

"You know my past," she said. "You know what I used to do for a living. It's not something that can be forgotten about; have you thought about that?"

Don tried not to think about Desdemona's days of prostitution as much as he could. Granted, he had never actually seen her go to service any clients. The one time he had thought that was what she was doing, she had actually been going to see the talking dog Nym about information to help them get home. Des had spent at least four years having sex for money; there was no way to sugar-coat that. Des stared at him, her features stern.

"I have thought about it," Don said. "And I guess…it doesn't matter any more. That part of your life is long gone. Maybe…I want to help you start a new life."

Des's expression softened and she reached out to take his hands. It was a gentle gesture, completely at odds with the last time she had done such a thing, when she had grabbed his hands in terror as they were transported away from the horror of Michio Haruka's lab.

"I don't know, Don," she said. "Like I said, you're a nice guy. I'm not a nice girl."

"I don't care about your past," Don said firmly. "And maybe…maybe things won't work out between us. Let's face it, we don't really know each other that well." He took a deep breath. "But this has been on my mind for months, and I figured I might as well give it a shot."

"Okay."

Don blinked.

"Huh?" he asked.

"I said 'okay'. You can take me out," Des said.

Don's brain engaged again and he smiled.

"Well, great!" he said. "I have the Sewer Slider parked up. We could go for a ride now?"

Des leaned against the doorframe and grinned wryly.

"Going to take me to the Malt Shop?" she asked.

Don shook his head and rubbed the back of his head.

"Well, I'm sure we'll work something out." He held out an arm in a gesture towards the hidden entrance where the vehicle was parked. "After you."

Desdemona made sure she had her keys and closed the door behind her. The two turtles walked beside each other towards the Slider and as they reached it, Don held out a hand to help Des up. She hesitated, staring at him, but eventually took the offered help. Don smiled, and fired up the engine.


End file.
